2196. The Civilizer.—Let us never forget that the cultivation of the earth is the most important labor of man. Man, without the cultivation of the earth, is in all countries a savage. When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization.
2197. Independence of Farmers.—We live in a country of small farms; a country, in which men cultivate with their own hands, their own fee-simple acres; drawing not only their subsistence, but also their spirit of independence, and manly freedom from the ground they plow.
2198. The Glory of Agriculture.—"The task of working improvements on the earth is much more delightful than all the vain glory which can be acquired by ravaging it with the most uninterrupted career of conquests."—Washington.
CATTLE.
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2199.—Treat Domestic Animals kindly and tenderly.—Domestic animals of all kinds from a horse down to a chicken, should be treated with gentleness and mildness; men or boys who are rash and bad-tempered, ought not to be permitted to have charge of them or to interfere with their management. Animals that are kept in constant fear of suffering never thrive well, and they often become vicious and intractable by unkind and cruel treatment.