AGRICULTURE AS A CALLING. 325 



should boa power in these directions. If to numbers they add 

 intelligence and enterprise, how can it be otherwise, and where 

 does social influence and political power so properly belong-, as 

 with those who own and cultivate the soil ? If true to themselves 

 this class may become, in the noblest and truest sense, the 

 aristocracy of the land, the conservatives of the liberties and 

 highest interests of the people. In treating- of the position which 

 this calling should occupy, and how that position can be secured, 

 I have merely hinted at what should properly be elaborated in a 

 lecture by itself. 



The necessity laid upon us, if we would lift this calling to a 

 higher plane than it now occupies, calls for a higher standard of 

 general intelligence, and for the awakening of professional pride 

 and enthusiasm. It calls for business enterprise and a greater 

 earnestness of purpose^; for a more courageous and reliant spirit, 

 for stronger faith in its possibilities, and for a deeper sense of the 

 honor and dignity pertaining to it. 



Pres. Allen*. I can only speak in the highest commendation of 

 the lecture, because it brings before our minds these great truths 

 of the importance of the calling of agriculture, and the necessity of 

 intelligence in this department. One cause why agriculture as a 

 calling has not assumed its true position, and the influence and 

 respectability which is due to the calling, is this, simple fact : Men 

 have influence not according to their usefulness, but according to 

 their intelligence. A person may be good but, comparatively, 

 without influence, for goodness is one thing and influence is an- 

 other. Now that influence will depend upon intelligence, and 

 intelligence demands culture. Brain power will not be developed 

 without use of the brain, nor will the brain be used effectually unless 

 it is educated*. And the thought, the falsity that there is no special 

 intelligence required to make a good farmer, no special brain 

 culture, 'no education to develop mental power is required to make 

 one successful in agricultural' pursuits, has been one of the great 

 reasons which has depressed farming in Maine. Suppose jou had 

 a flock, or herd, and should sell off all the choicest young from that 

 flock or from that herd, I ask, how long would it be before you 

 would have a poor flock and a poor herd? And I ask, if you drive 

 away from the shepherds all the noblest young men, how long will 

 it be before you will have a poor parcel of shepherds ? Now just 

 as sure as you put such a seal of disapprobation upon agricultural 

 pursuits as to imagine that it does not require intelligence, you 



