ducts. The architect does
not live in the houses and temples he builds. The engineer does not live
on his bridge. The miner does not live in his mine. Even the sailor has
his home away from his ship. But the farmer cannot separate himself from
his works. Every bushel of buckwheat and every barrel of apples and
every bale of cotton bears his name; the beef that he takes to market,
the sheep that he herds on his pastures, the horse that he
drives,--these are his products and they carry his name. He should have
the same pride in these--his productions--as another who builds a
machine, or another who writes a book about them. The admiration of a
field of hay, of a cow producing milk, of a shapely and fragrant head of
cabbage, is a great force for good.

It would mean much if we could celebrate the raw materials and the
products. Particularly is it good to celebrate the yearly bounty. The
Puritans recognized their immediate dependence on the products of the
ground, and their celebration was connected with religion. I should be
sorry if our celebrations were to be wholly secular.

We have been much given to the display of fabricated materials,--of the
products of looms, lathes, foundries, and many factories of skill. We
also exhibit the agricultural produce, but largely in a crass and rude
way to display bulk and to win prizes. We now begin to arrange our
exhibitions for color effect, comparison, and educational influence. But
we do not justly understand the natural products when we confine them to
formal exhibitions. They must be incorporated into many celebrations,
expressing therein the earth's bounty and our appreciation of it. The
usual and common products, domesticated and wild, should be gathered in
these occasions, and not for competition or for prize awards or even for
display, but for their intrinsic qualities. An apple day or an apple
sabbath would teach the people to express their gratitude for apples.
The moral obligation to grow good apples, to handle them honestly, to
treat the soil and the trees fairly and reverently, could be developed
as a living practical philosophy into the working-days of an
apple-growing people. The technical knowledge we now possess requires
the moral support of a stimulated public appreciation to make it a
thoroughly effective force.

Many of the products and crops lend themselves well to this kind of
admiration, and all of them should awaken gratitude and reverence.
Sermons and tea