28 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



EXTENSIVE, INTENSIVE FARMING. 



By Prof. J. W. Sanborn, Gilmanton, N. H. 



(Stenographic Copy.) 



Young says, "All nature is but art unknown to thee, All 

 chance direction which thou canst not see." If nature is art or 

 law, as agriculture deals with nature and comes the nearest to art 

 of all the industries, then agriculture is governed by law. He 

 who works in harmony with law works to the best advantage ; 

 and he who works in harmony with law must be the man 

 who understands the laws of his industry, must be the man who 

 thinks. If our occupation is one of intellectual activity, then 

 by the very laws of industrial evolution it is an industry in which 

 the greatest intellectual activity, other things being equal, will 

 give the largest income. If intellect is the measure of the indus- 

 trial output of a people, then the people that put the largest 

 amount of intellect into their industry will have the largest out- 

 put. This is true of individuals in a community, it is true of 

 communities against communities, and states against states. If 

 my interpretation of the power of intellect in determining the 

 fruits of agriculture is correct, then the returns of agriculture 

 to us are measured by our intellectual activity, and the relative 

 returns of Maine or of New England as against other sections 

 of the country or of the world will be determined by the relative 

 mental activity they put into their industry. 



We say that farming does not pay in New England, because 

 our soil is sterile. The measure of the productions of the soil 

 handled by people of intelligence is nowhere on the face of the 

 earth the fertility of the soil, but the fertility of the intellects of 

 those who farm those soils. New England has poorer lands 

 than the Middle States, but more of her people read and write, 

 and she raises more per acre. Michigan has more people who 

 read and write than Ohio, but a poorer soil, yet her farm products 

 are larger. Indiana has several per cent less of her people who 

 can read and write than Ohio, and less agricultural productions, 



