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capacity of soils, by which it is found that land utterly useless for some 

 articles is the most valuable for others, an observation of the process of 

 growth, a study of the laws of life, an acquaintance with the peculiar 

 nature of domestic animals, their varieties of breeds, the strange effects 

 of crossings and intermixtures — all these are full of profit and interest 

 and delight to an active mind. The man who would be stupid and 

 thoughtless as a farmer, would not be roused to mental activity by any 

 occupation ; and to a man of thought there is no other department of in- 

 dustry so full of interest and pleasui-e. 



While there is no branch of industry that naturally awakens more 

 mental activity than the farmer's, there is none in which thought and 

 study produce a more beneficial eftect. 



We sometimes hear of a prejudice against scientific farming. This, 

 if language is properly used, is only a^prejudice against knowledge and 

 in favor of the opposite, which is stupidity and ignorance, for science 

 means knowledge. Who is opposed to a scientific arrangement and 

 practice of law ? a scientific practice of mediciiie ? a scientific construc- 

 tion of houses, steam engines, nlachinery, ships, and any and every oth- 

 er implement of industry ? Who is opposed to scientific navigation and 

 locomotion ? 



Who would have society thrust backward to the dark ages, when 

 disputes between neighbors were decided by lot, or by fiery ordeal, or 

 by torture, or by some despot, instead of by a trial by jury, under the 

 advice of counsel and superintendence of a judge, according to written 

 law ? But this is scientific. Who would have our sick men nursed by 

 ignoraait empyrics, who had never seen a human skeleton, knew noth- 

 ing of the circulation of the blood, or the action of the various parts 

 of the human form divine, and whose knowledge was confined to a 

 few fancies and fewer facts, and who resorted to the most offensive 

 drugs, and incantations and charms, and the mummeries of witchcraft 

 for a cure, instead of the judicious practice found upon close and self- 

 denying study and law ? But this is science. 



Who would have our people travel, and our produce dragged over 

 muddy corduroy roads, ten miles a day, and workhig a passage at that, 

 through an equal mixture of land and water, instead of on the plank 

 road, over the macadamized highway, or by the railroad? But this is 

 scientific. 



