38 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



and plough. To these, and to the men who know how to wield 

 them, are they, with their haughty pre-eminence, in hopeless 

 subjection. 



Let us not misapprehend, gentlemen ; in practical farming 

 there is a vast demand for the use of the mind. Here all 

 natural agencies and instrumentalities meet and act. Nature 

 as a whole is the means ; its action, endlessly diversified and 

 complex, is to be rendered the source of profit. What a 

 demand for practical knowledge, or effective use of mind, is 

 here. The heavens above, sun, moon and stars, vapor, dew, 

 heat, cold, wind, rain, frost, ice and snow, all — favorably or 

 adversely — act upon and affect the labor and hopes of him who 

 plants the corn, sows the wheat, and tends the flock. Of all 

 these influences such a man is to know and judge. And can he 

 do this, wisely and well, without deep and critical thought? As 

 soon traverse oceans, survey continents, or determine the 

 distances of the fixed stars, without such thought. Nothing 

 but well adjusted mind can safely tell when and how to prepare 

 the ground, sow the seed, mow the grass, cut the grain, prune 

 the vine, or trim the tree. 



In all this, mind is to be used ; and to be used well, it must 

 be informed. No other agency, gentlemen, can surely inform 

 and safely guide amid the various and oft-times conflicting 

 influences which, on the farm, are so mighty to act, and so 

 certain to control. Understood, these influences become 

 strength and joy ; misunderstood, they work a work of ruin. By 

 close observation of natural laws, indicated by varying and yet 

 uniform manifestations, and this in the detail of daily experi- 

 ence, the successful farmer learns and applies lessons of wisdom 

 and strength. The manual, from which he derives his best 

 instruction, is composed of suns, moons and stars ; of vapors, 

 clouds and dews; of storms, winds and hail; of moisture, 

 drought, heat and cold; yea of all in the heavens above : making 

 them all contributors to the hotter growth of his broad and 

 glorious empire of grass, of fruit, and of stock. 



Thus, studying nature, the farmer becomes, practically, a 

 natural philosopher. Upon given indications of vapor, or the 

 sky, or the wind, at sunrise, at noon, at sundown or midnight, 

 in seed or harvest time, may the success or failure of an entire 

 summer's campaign on the farm depend. A mistake in inter- 



