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farmer — I will say the American farmer — he would find himself able 

 to maintain his boasted pre-eminence. 



But are we as a class what we ought to be, what our high profes- 

 sions require of us ? Have we during the last half century, made as 

 much actual progress as manufacturers, engineers, ship builders, or me- 

 chanics ' As an American farmer myself, I may be allowed to speak 

 freely and candidly on the subject. I appeal to you, does the profession 

 of agriculture among us take the same position as an intellectual pur- 

 suit, as many others around us ? I mean, do we consider that a strict 

 education is as necessary for us as for the civil engineer, the builder of 

 steam engines, the chemist, or the maker of woolen or cotton goods ? 

 That in itself agriculture is intrinsically intellectual, that it absorbs within 

 itself a large proportion of other arts and sciences, that it affords a field 

 for the exercise of the highest talent, no one who has examined the 

 subject can deny. Accustomed, as I have been from childhood, to scienti- 

 fic pursuits, and unapt to be frightened hj intellectual difficulties, I do 

 assure you that after many years expended in the study of agriculture, 

 I confess myself yet a mere pupil ; and every step I take opens but a 

 still further view of great but unexamined truths, which this noble art 

 is capable of presenting to the human mind. As agriculture was the 

 first to originate, so does it appear to be the last to arrive at perfection. 

 For hundreds of ages, the human intellect has been laboriously search- 

 ing after truth, yearly becoming more practical in its aims — ^but it is left 

 to these latter days, for all other arts and sciences to kneel at the feet 

 of agriculture, and, like the magi of old, pour into her lap treasures of 

 gold, frankincense and myrrh. Allow me, then, candidly, not as a teach- 

 er, but as a friend, shortly to point out where it seems to me we may be 

 considered deficient, and where we may amend. 



I will not speak of dress or manners, however important they may 

 be in a secondary point of view, for they are rather signs than facts. It 

 may amuse the city dandy to ridicule the faimer on account of his 

 home-made coat, or awkward gait ; we can hardly excuse this — for the 

 poor fellow has nothing else on which to pride himself than what he has 

 received from the tailor and dancing master. It is not the heavy hand, 

 nor the soft-kid covered palm that makes the man. It is the heart and 

 the head. In the words of the old poet — 



" Worth makes the mau, without it the fellow, 

 All the rest is but leather and prunello." 



