ato-rot, oats-rust, winter-killing,
and all the rest; when we learn the degree of vigilance needed to keep
every minute of hired labor and team-work effectively employed; and when
we come finally to the items of low markets and bad debts,--we shall
see how far these and similar drawbacks have undone our arithmetic, and
how often our well-contrived balance must be taken into the footings of
the other column of figures.

The regular work of the farmer, as indicated in the foregoing sketch of
his occupations, and as perceptible to the summer boarder who watches
his work from the piazza, although arduous and exacting, may be quite
compatible with a happy life; and, when we estimate the promise of the
occupation as offering a pleasant livelihood, no able-bodied man need be
deterred by it. But when we add this long list of contingencies, and
consider the ceaseless anxiety that they bring, we may well hesitate
before adopting such a life for ourselves or desiring it for our
children. No true estimate of the developed character of the farmer can
be formed without giving due value to this uncertain factor in the
calculation.

Instances are hardly exceptional where a clear natural intelligence, an
indomitable courage, and great industry, have turned themselves into a
real source of mental and moral strength. Success achieved in spite of
such drawbacks is all the sweeter and all the more inspiriting because
of them. But if we take the case of the average farmer with average
human weaknesses, we cannot fail to see, that, however well he may have
borne up against the more obvious requirements of his work, he has been
warped and cramped, and often made in many ways unlovely, by the hard
and anxious toil through which his halting success has been attained.

In nearly every other occupation than farming, the hardest worker finds
a daily relief from his toil, and from the suggestion of toil, in a home
that is entirely apart from his industry. However arduous and anxious
and long-continued the work, there comes a time when it is laid aside,
and when the workman goes into a new sphere, where the atmosphere is
entirely changed. His home is a place of rest and pleasure, or at least
a place of change. The pen and the hammer are left in the counting-room
and in the shop; and, however far the home may fall below his desires
and ambition, it is at least free from the cares of the day's
occupation.

The American farmer has no such relief. Hi