346 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



Off. Doc. 



in diameter? Six inches? Do you know the names of all the trees? 

 AYhich are the most useful? Which will be so in time to come? Do 

 you know how much nourishment a horse will get from four quarts 

 of oats and twenty pounds of hay? Do you know how far that nour- 

 ishment will go for drawing a load? Can you tell by looking at two 

 machines of the same make which is the better? In which one is 

 the casting the strongest? Or if the wood is having its fibers run- 

 ning in the right direction for the greatest strength? Or the amount 

 of strength required in pounds to operate the machine? What pres- 

 sure must each part be able to bear? Do you know the names of all 

 the weeds not only on your farm but in your district? Do yon know 

 how fast each grows, and what seed each bears? Do you know the 

 best way to get rid of each kind? Do you know how much nourish- 

 ment a brier reouires? Do you know how far that nourishment 

 would go towards making a bushel of wheat? Should you plow a 

 hilly field early or late? Do you know your fields as you know your 

 children, their very nature? The strength of how many pounds must 

 the hub of a wheel be able to bear in order that a ton may be loaded 

 on the wagon? How many pounds of hny of the different kinds are 

 required to make a pound of milk? 



So I might go on all night asking questions and not have half 

 covered the field of knowledge open to us. Some of you will say such 

 questions are impossible to answer, but I say confidently that to 

 the persevering they are possible. Again, let me ask how do you 

 spend your evenings? Your rain-days, your morning hours, or your 

 rest-a-little on the plow handles or under the shade trees? Grand 

 time to get out your little books and note your bright ideas, which 

 you may have forgotten till evening. Note your observations, your 

 experiments. In the evening get your big diary, note the date, then 

 write out your thoughts, observations and experiments in detail, even 

 if you must work an hour or two, your sleep will be all the sweeter 

 for it. If you dK) that every day for ten years you Northampton 

 farmers will have the distinction of being among the wisest farmers 

 as a community in the whole United States. Then go to your neigh- 

 bors sometimes while you are studying up different topics, take your 

 diaries with you, compare notes and learn that way. 



'"Tis true we may not all be great, 

 But more could be than are." 



Are you not in the very midst of nature? Has not God spread 

 his great book open before you? Has he not end^owed you with 

 reasoning powers, with eyes and with ears? Therefore I say hear, 

 see, reason, and thereby you will not only fill your mind with precious 

 gems, but your pocket-book will also grow fat. Wordsworth, the 

 great poet of nature says: 



