182 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE- [Jan., 



elementary at least, as an aid to the study of natural history, is 

 well appreciated, and America is still so slow in scientific matters 

 that the ability to read French and German adds much to one's 

 capacity in this line of study. (This sentence should be read 

 again, that it be not misleading: a good mechanic may successfully 

 follow his trade without a certain expensive tool, of only occa- 

 sional use; yet he likes to have it in his chest, and if within reach 

 he at times finds it of great assistance.) A farmer needs as accu- 

 rate knowledge of anatomy and physiology as a physician, though 

 it be in a different and wider field; he needs to be something of a 

 lawyer, to know what trees he may cut and when he may shoot a 

 woodchuck or take a trout, on his own farm, — and he needs a fair 

 share of his minister's theology and faith, to fully appreciate the 

 mysteries and the beauties of creation, the grandeur of Nature 

 and natural laws, and to truly love and honor the vocation which, 

 above all others, brings man into close communion with God. In 

 short, it is safe to assert that no human occupation requires so 

 long a course and wide a range of study, to comprehensively fit a 

 person for its intelligent and profitable pursuit, as agriculture. 

 There is, besides, the necessity of practice, or the apprenticeship 

 part of learning the art. 



This presentation of the subject should not discourage nor 

 alarm. There are partial courses and short cuts to successful 

 special farming, as well as to the bar and the pulpit. A' half loaf 

 is better than no bread, and in some cases does as well as a whole 

 one. We are not considering the training needed to make a 

 plowman, or a teamster, a mower, or milker or ditcher, but the 

 making of a farmer, in the broadest sense. Education requiring 

 time and money, and ambition and brains, solid, substantial study 

 and drill, will be meat and bread to the farmers of the next cen- 

 tury, and of these many are now alive. 



If the question anywhere arises which of three boys on a farm 

 shall be given the advantages of a collegiate or technical educa- 

 tion, the one who is to be a professional man, the one who is to go 

 into business; or the one who is to be a farmer, there is no sort of 

 question in my mind that the future farmer is the one who needs 

 special education the most, and a good agricultural school or 

 college is the place to get most of it. The farmers of Connecticut, 

 although fortunate in the possession of a well-established and 

 ably-conducted Experiment Station, have an agricultural college 



