USE OF MIND IN FARMING. 



what is deadly to itself, and vegetable life absorbs the same and 

 thrives. 



How sublimely expressive are such laws of the glorious 

 wisdom of Him who has hung the world on nothing, and who 

 whirls suns and stars and systems of stars in orbits of millions 

 of miles, and with lightning speed, through boundless space ! 

 An undevout astronomer, it has been said, is mad ; what then 

 is an undevout tiller of the earth, the owner and operator of this 

 bountiful New England soil? The farmer may, if he will, 

 profit by the suggestions of science and philosophy, but, after 

 all, he must depend more upon what he works out, in home- 

 spun dress and with bony arm, dusty brow and treble-skinned 

 hand, in his own wide studio of hill and valley, meadow and 

 corn-field, wood-land and orchard, barn-yard and hay-stack, 

 horse and cattle stall, poultry and pig yard. In this, his own 

 school, with shovel, pitchfork, fl ail, trace-chain, whiffletree, ring 

 and bolt, wagon, cart, oxen, horses, cut-feed, oats, corn and 

 hay, he can and must work his science out. He must prove its 

 truth and power by what he actually produces. Corn fifty 

 bushels, wheat thirty, potatoes two hundred, hay from three to 

 four tons per acre ; eggs, apples, butter, cheese, wool, honey, 

 pork, beef, and articles too numerous to mention, in large sup- 

 plies, are the best demonstrations of success. Science or no 

 science, books or no books, the great practical lesson is gained ; 

 I eat, you eat, he eats, we eat, ye or you eat, they eat ! 



All this is practical education, the use of mind cast upon 

 its own resources and reading facts as they are revealed in 

 actual experiment. This is a work which requires, and must 

 have, clear and strong mind. Nothing idiotic, or below par, 

 will succeed in such a school. The A. B. C. of farming is 

 acquired only by mighty, continuous effort. Let imbeciles, 

 exquisites and fools, with their white gloves, choose any other 

 profession, if they would thrive, than that of tilling the earth. 

 Common sense, sound judgment, correct estimates of wind and 

 weather, seed and soil, must be on the farm if the farm flourish. 

 Good crops are not and cannot be guessed, whistled, or laughed 

 out. Never ! and the wise farmer knows it. A farmer may 

 whistle, and whistle well, and let him, if he pleases, so do, but 

 whistling will not raise corn or feed cattle. Work, under the 

 guidance of a well-trained and used mind, is the element of 



