THE PRACTICAL FARMER. 99 



with their live stock ; and if they neglect to do so, how can 

 they tell whether in reality they are making or losing by that 

 particnlar kind of crop or that particular kind and management 

 of stock ? How can they tell in season to avoid a very serious 

 loss, oftentimes ? 



No ; the fact is, there is no business under the sun that 

 requires such varied and accurate knowledge, such close and 

 careful observation of the laws of nature, and such constant 

 stiidy of the improvements in the mechanic arts, as farming ; 

 and there is no business that calls so constantly for the exer- 

 cise of plain, practical, common sense. Without this, no man 

 can be a good practical farmer, no matter how much science or- 

 how much knowledge of other things he may have. Probably 

 the fact that only a very small number of those who happen to 

 possess a respectable knowledge of the sciences applicable to 

 farming, were trained in early life upon the farm, so as to get 

 some knowledge of its daily operations, has done much to create 

 an unjust prejudice against science, for it is evident that a man 

 with some systematic knowledge of farming, other things being 

 equal., ought to become a good practical farmer before one who 

 has not such knowledge. 



I do not mean that to become a good, or even a first rate 

 farmer, a man must be a learned chemist, botanist or physiolo- 

 gist, or a skilful mechanic. Each of these branches must be 

 made an object of special attention, if one would excel in it, 

 and requires the constant study and application of a lifetime, 

 while the farmer, like other men, must earn his daily bread, and 

 meet the duties which society and his occupation impose on him. 



Nor do I wish to convey the idea that by study and knowl- 

 edge of the sciences, farming itself can ever become an exact 

 science like mathematics, or mechanics. They who maintain 

 that it may be reduced to the same certainty and system as 

 any mechanical pursuit, greatly deceive themselves. The manu- 

 facturer has only dead and inert matter to work upon. He can 

 control the spindle and the loom by a machinery so nice as to 

 seem almost instinct with life ; but who can control the infinite 

 variety of influences which modify the growth of an acre of 

 corn ? Who can command the gentle rains, the silent dew, and 

 the genial sunshine ? Who but Him who holds the storm in 

 his hand and can still the raging sea ? 



