THE FARMER'S BURDENS ARE TOO HEAVY-IT IS HIS DUTY TO MAKE THEM LIGHT-HOW TO EDUCATE HIS CHILDREN-TO FERTILIZE THE SOIL-How THE MECHANIC MAY SHORTEN HIS LABOR-HOW TO OBTAIN A HOME.

"Agriculture is the only honest way of living."-BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. "Have but few wants, and the means to supply them."-DE WARVILLE.

YOU who are farmers are almost crushed to the

earth, with unrequited toil. Like beasts of burden

you bear with patience heavy loads. The injustice of society, the remains of barbarism, bind burdens on the farmer that should not be endured. For instance, a number of idle ruffians meet to see a "mill," or two persons maim each other. A number of pale, smooth-faced gentlemen in women's toggery, met to try a MAN, not for crime or outrage on men's moral feelings, but for preaching in a Methodist meeting house, for persuading men "to cease to do: evil, to learn to do well." For this he was arraigned before a tribunal of Episcopal clergymen, who should have been better employed. There were many outcasts around them, suffering for the necessaries of life. Had these men first created their food and clothes, their faults would not have been so great. Like worms in the peach, they only. destroy, they do not create. This was in 1868.

If the farmer would spend a portion of his time making cloth, beet or maple sugar for his own consumption, there,

would be a mighty change-many in society would have to toil. The corruptions of society enable thousands to live without doing any work.

Farmers are at the bottom of the social column. When a farmer visits a large city, he should have these reflections: This large multitude I help to feed and find in clothing materials. What do I gain? Am I a freeman or a slave? Why do I toil so incessantly? The unproductive classes become more numerous every day. The farmers do not increase in proportion. The farmer, by selling his grain and grass, impoverishes his land. Many farms in New England which once gave thirty bushels of wheat to an acre, now only give twelve. The wheat was eaten in cities, and wasted so that the soil was not fertilized. In the same manner are the Western States becoming barren. In half a century sterility will prevail, unless prevented.

The ruins of cities show they have been once populous. Why is it a desert around them? This land was once a woodland covered with trees, the leaves of which decay and mixed with sand form the soil. What has taken ages to form may be destroyed in a generation-which is done in this manner. The soil was planted, and the products consumed in cities, which are on river banks. Water carries away what should be put on the soil.

A Southern journal says: "Cotton is an exhausting crop ; it leaves so little to manure the soil. Cotton has destroyed more than earthquakes or volcanoes. South Carolina has produced cotton, to the last dying gasp, till the soil forbids cultivation, and is turned out to nature, reminding travelers of the dilapidated condition of Greece."

Thomas Jefferson said: "Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country,

and wedded to its liberties and interests, by the most lasting bonds. As long, therefore, as they can find employment in this line, I would not convert them into artisans, mariners, or any thing else. Our citizens will find employment in this line till their numbers, and of course their productions, become too great for the demand, both internal and foreign. This is not the case as yet, and probably will not be for a considerable time. As soon as the surplus of hands must be turned into something else, I should then, perhaps, turn them into the sea, in preference to manufactures. consider this class of artificers as the panderers to vice, and the instruments by which the liberties of a country are generally overturned. However, we are not at liberty to decide this question on principle of theory only. Our people are decided in the opinion that it is necessary for us to take a share in the ocean. I think it is a duty in those intrusted with the administration of affairs, to conform themselves to the decided choice of their constituents; and that, therefore, we should, in every instance, preserve an equality of right to them, in the transportation of commodities, in the right of fishing, and the other uses of the sea. But what will be the consequence? Frequent wars, beyond a doubt!"

Mr. Jefferson never ceased to believe only in simple, rural life-moderation in living-daily toil; and no greater aggregation of human beings than is to be found in the family on each farm. He was opposed to the building of a Federal town for the seat of government.

It is the duty of the father who owns a farm, to leave it for all future time to his descendants. Why should the father, who has felled trees, dug up stumps, drained marshes, cultivated hedges, planted orchards, and erected the home with its green lawns, graveled walks, flowering shrubbery, and climbing grape vines-why should all this, at the father's

death, pass into the hands of strangers? It is better that the offspring should bless the parent or ancestor for his industry, than a stranger should rejoice in having obtained a possession for a small bale of paper money. When an estate is sold, many a tree and shrub, brick and nail, is not paid for. The purchaser hardly ever pays the full value.

Mr. Wilkinson P, of Miami Co., Ohio, told the writer, when stopping with him, as a school-teacher, that he "bought his farm, containing 130 acres, for $3.00 an acre, and he paid for it by driving cattle, for thirty-three cents and a third of a cent for a day." He then got married and had seven children. Said he: "I calculate to give my boys, when twenty one, 100 acres each, and the youngest is to have the home farm." This he has done, and he gave his daughter for a marriage portion $2,000. Since he started them in life, he has saved for each $2,000. From this farm this father has saved, in forty years, $30,000; perhaps more. This family had every luxury. This farmer had a way of increasing or multiplying his money, by interest, which is a plan of getting from others. His conscience did not see it was wrong, and he may be forgiven. This case proves that the home should be in the family as a monument after death, and a fountain of supplies, for the members of the family to draw from while creating a new home. These boys were put to work at proper age and earned their farms. Some of them understand algebra and the sciences. These boys cleared their own land.

The writer, became acquainted, in Clinton Co., Ill., with seven brothers of the name of Sharp. Their father taught them to farm, and then gave each 100 acres of land. One brother now has 500 acres, and is a local preacher; the excess of food his sons, tenantry, and himself make will keep his congregation 150 persons all the year. One has the home.

In Sweden the youngest son takes the homestead and keeps the parents; the surplus goes to supply the others. A division takes place where the estate is large.

It is to be hoped the time will come when men will believe again it is sinful to take interest, and that the laboring men will be their own merchants. If justice had been done to society, it would be the owner of all the turnpikes and railroads. If such a period should ever come, men would have to build their own homes. It is from these sources that wealth is obtained that enables men to buy costly homes.

There are three sources that impoverish a farmer's lands: The first is to buy the land on credit, and pay for it by selling its crops; the second is to sell crops to pay the taxes; the third is to sell crops to buy shoddy cloth. If these drains on the land were to cease, a greater number of the farmer's children might find support from the soil. Two of these will be done away with when men know their political rights; the latter when men discipline their mechanical faculties.

To buy cloth abroad introduces the evils of cities. Says Bismark: "Large cities are in the highest degree obnoxious to the welfare of nations." This fact should make the farmer, joined with others, resolve to possess some simple and cheap twisting and weaving machinery. Porter, in his "Progress of the British Nation," says: "A curious trade has of late years sprung up, that of importing rags for the purpose of re-manufacture. These are assorted, torn up, and twisted with wool of a low quality, and inferior cloth is made from the mixture."

The farmers, in olden times, supported many scholars. Wm. Godwin, in his "Enquirer," says: "About the fifteenth century the human mind began to shake off its slum