MAINE STATE SOCIETY. ' 5j_ 



once secured, for a better price. And yet we may look in vain for 

 another class of men who so strangely or so culpably neglect it, or 

 who so emphatically pine in leanness for want of its nourishing 

 fruits. Bringing to his aid the energy and vigor secured by his 

 daily avocation, and looking for guidance, as he constantly must, 

 " through nature up to nature's God, " his obvious and blameworthy 

 neglect of this sphere of duty — his want of thrift in this birthright 

 field — is no less injurious to himself, than astoniahing to everybody 

 else. 



Is it replied that the mind must needs suffer because the farm 

 demands attention ? Does the farmer ever argue that the compost 

 heap must be neglected, that time may be gained to attend to 

 the harvest? — or that there is no time to feed the horse or ox, be- 

 cause a hard day's work is before him 1 It is the farm that suffe'rs 

 because the mind is untilled. Why are our village girls — and in 

 modern times our farmer's girls, too — put to the study of chemistry, 

 philosophy and botany, while the farmers' sons, like the mechanics' 

 apprentices of old, are confined to " reading, writing, and cyphering 

 as far as the Rule of Three ? " Is it more important that roses 

 should be trained to grow in pots, than that corn and potatoes should 

 be brought to vigorous growth in the field ? What farmer would 

 teach his son to reckon the value of a hog at so much the pound, 

 before that son had learned whether hogs were best fattened on In- 

 dian meal or birch bark ? Has a knowledge of botany, chemistry, 

 and vegetable physiology a closer relation to working muslin or 

 training children, than to working the soil and training the plants 

 and fruits of the earth ? ' 



Who, so much as the farmer, requires a knowledge of these 

 branches ot science in his daily business ? Would he trust the 

 feeding of his oxen to one who is ignorant, whether their natural 

 food is gravel or hay ? or of his horse to the sailor, who ordered 

 him fed with a couple of oats, without knowing v/hether he could 

 more properly order a dozen or a bushel ? The vegetable as well 

 as the animal kingdom is sustained and nourished by appropriate 

 food ; and if the farmer would not offer the same kind of food to his 

 hog and to his horse, why should he presume that all the various 

 kinds of vegetables that demand his care require the same nutri- 

 ment ? He only, then, can be the complete farmer, whose acquaint- 



