was Emerson's authority on agriculture and gardening more than any one;
though in later years Samuel Staples (usually known and spoken of as
"Sam") superseded him because he was a nearer neighbor. In 1843, when
Emerson wrote to George Ripley declining to join the Brook Farm community,
he referred to the opinions of Edmund Hosmer, "a very intelligent farmer
and a very upright man in my neighborhood." He gave in full his neighbor's
reasons for want of faith in the community idea, that co-operation in
farming was not successful, that the word of gentlemen-farmers could not
be trusted, that the equal payment of ten cents an hour to every laborer
was unjust, and that good work could not be secured if the worker was not
directly benefited.

In his notes on the agriculture of Massachusetts, published in _The Dial_,
Emerson described his neighbor in these words: "In an afternoon in April,
after a long walk, I traversed an orchard where boys were grafting
apple-trees, and found the farmer in his cornfield. He was holding the
plough, and his son driving the oxen. This man always impresses me with
respect, he is so manly, so sweet-tempered, so faithful, so disdainful of
all appearances--excellent and reverable in his old weather-worn cap and
blue frock bedaubed with the soil of the field; so honest, withal, that he
always needs to be watched lest he should cheat himself. I still remember
with some shame that in some dealing we had together a long time ago, I
found that he had been looking to my interest, and nobody had looked to
his part. As I drew near this brave laborer in the midst of his own acres,
I could not help feeling for him the highest respect. Here is the Caesar,
the Alexander of the soil, conquering and to conquer, after how many and
many a hard-fought summer's day and winter's day; not like Napoleon, hero
of sixty battles only, but of six thousand, and out of every one he has
come victor; and here he stands, with Atlantic strength and cheer,
invincible still. These slight and useless city limbs of ours will come to