60 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



and may grasp knowledge enough to make farming and mechanical 

 pursuits both intellectual and interesting. The expansion of the 

 soul, the interior growth is not necessarily cramped and fettered 

 by being wedded to the soil. We may be educated to a love of 

 nature, so as to appreciate her daily surroundings, and to delight 

 in searching to know her laws. Every crop raised on our farms 

 may be made an exceedingly interesting experiment. 



Intellect is dulled by excessive physical labor, and now when 

 men are scarce, farm arrangements should be perfected so as to 

 economize strength. Mind should quicken — thus extending the 

 long arm of the lever at which we stand to do our work. 



Applying these thoughts to the matter in hand, we are forced to 

 the conclusion that at present an undue proportion of the money 

 bestowed in premiums, is awarded on live stock. The statements 

 accompanying the presentation of stock at our exhibitions, are, in 

 the aggregate, of little value. The intrinsic worth of the animal 

 itself is a sufficient incentive to the careful farmer to select from 

 the best breeds within his reach ; and the proof is entirely wanting, 

 that the continuous payment of premiums has not latterly effected 

 anything for the introduction of new and better breeds, anything 

 for instituting comparisons between different breeds, by sufficient 

 data, to settle questions of preference for specific purposes, or even 

 to determine the general question of profit or loss. 



In another direction there are unexplored fields that we approach 

 with much curiosity, where the border of the veil of obscuration is 

 but just raised by science, where we are invited to step in and 

 pursue our investigations and gratify cuj'iosity by experiment 

 alone — the fields of vegetable life — the crops of the farm. Here, 

 even, where we all are anxious to know more, where we all con- 

 fess ourselves but children, we are gaining, year by year, but little 

 knowledge. 



The prize lists of the societies name a mere pittance for premi- 

 ums, for the reason that so few of them are applied for. They are 

 not competed for because they are so small. They hold out no 

 inducement in compensation for the time required in conducting 

 anything like a careful experiment. 



An acre of wheat is grown on one of Maine's verdant hill tops. 

 Its yield is thirty-fold. Mother nature was propitious. The early 

 and latter rain descended gently. Insect life in its neighborhood 

 did not appropriate it. The straw grew tall and strong and bright. 



