STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 19J 



progress. Confine their faculties to a narrow routine of study, and 

 whilst a few faculties may be partially strengthened, others remain unde- 

 veloped. 



In the agriculture of England and of the continent, we see the influ- 

 ence of limited instruction. A ploughman continues to be but a plough- 

 man, and a worker in the vineyard occupies the place filled by his 

 grandfather's grandfather. Whatever of progress we find in England 

 and Scotland, is to be attributed to a higher and broader development of 

 mind. Turn to France, and in the following description of its agricul- 

 ture in the south, we see the results of subdivided instruction. One of 

 our most intelligent Consuls thus writes : 



" I received the request from the Agricultural Department to furnish 

 it statistics. I know not what to do. I, who have always so loved 

 agricultural and horticultural pursuits, would certainly be expected to 

 do much in this line. But when I look around, I find absolutely nothing 

 in all France to interest our country in that line. So far is France 

 behind us all in labor-saving machinery, in everything relating to agri- 

 culture, or the mechanic arts even, that I know it is the wrong place to 

 seek light. Many things are unearthed at Pompeii and Herculaneum 

 that are much in advance of anything in France. The ploughs are of 

 the stjde of the ancient Egyptians' — a forked tree. Their carts and 

 wagons of the farm are four times the size of our own — awkward and 

 clumsy affairs you might worship and not break the second command- 

 ment, for they are the likeness of nothing on earth. The peasants 

 drive in a single hog to market, as in Ireland, and everything else is in 

 the samo piddling, picayune style. Is this the style to be imitated by 

 our own large minded, great souled, enlightened, freeborn Americans ? 

 Not by my aid or consent. 



" This district, and the whole south of France from here to Nice, on 

 the Italian border, is a land mostly of grapes; the eastern half of olives, 

 also ; a poor, miserable character of farming, which we should leave, I 

 think, after looking over the whole ground, to the small minded small 

 farmers of Europe. Or when we do go at grape raising, as we will 

 largely in California, let us go at it in- our own grand style, as wo raise 

 hogs, corn, wheat, etc., etc.; no piddling or scratching like this." 



Here we have graphically described the difference between the en- 

 larged American agricultural mind, and the dwarfed European agricul- 

 tural mind. Our agriculture presented a scope that demanded thought; 

 it was vast in itself, and by its own greatness raised up the farmers of 

 our country to the higher standard we find in the foregoing contrast. 

 But as population becomes more dense, there will be a tendency to 

 European division of labor and its narrow views. This must be coun- 

 teracted by liberal education. Grand as have been the achievements of 

 American agriculture, it has been aided by a natural richness of the 

 soil, which must be replaced and sustained by the riches of science. 



But the American farmer and artisan have not yet achieved their 

 greatest elevation, either in their occupations or in their positions as 

 American citizens. Look into the army and at the civil offices. A 

 stranger to our institutions might readily suppose that the profession of 

 law constituted a privileged class in this country, and that no one out- 

 side of its ranks could hold a civil or military official position. Is this 

 just to the industrial classes ? Or is it safe to the government ? The 

 mission of these classes is not one of toil merely, but of equal position 



