188-1.] FAEM^LABOE IX NEW ENGLAND. 101 



easy one, but that it is capable of solution, I believe so fully that 

 it is my firm conviction. ^ 



It must not be supposed that, with all our improved methods 

 and our skillfully adapted implements, farming, at least in New- 

 England, can ever become a holiday affair. That "He who by the 

 plow would thrive, himself must either hold or drive," is a truism 

 I am not afraid anyone here will deny. "What the labor which he 

 employs lacks in skill and eflBciency he must make up by a more 

 intelligent application of that labor. He is not to adopt new 

 methods, or to discard old ones, simply because they are new or 

 old. He must avail himself of all possible helps, and be as willing 

 to be taught as he is to teach. And among these helps let me sug- 

 gest that the experience of others is one of the most valuable and 

 most easily obtained. There has been in the past too little frater- 

 nity among farmers for the general good, but now, by means of 

 the various agricultural publications, one of the very best of which 

 is published in our own State, whose columns are devoted to the 

 discussion of every important topic that relates to farming, by 

 those who are, by common consent, qualified to instruct others out 

 of their own practice, by the local farmers' clubs, organized for the 

 special purpose of telling each others' experience in the common 

 affaii's of the farm, by the annual exhibits of the products of well 

 directed cultivation, at our State, county, and town fairs, and by 

 these annual meetings under the auspices of our Boards of Agri- 

 culture, where the most practical subjects are treated in the most 

 practicable way by experts in each department, with now and then 

 a notable exception, in every New England State, he may learn 

 much that will help to avoid mistakes and to achieve success. 



Let me mention, also, that new and perhaps most important 

 help of all, as it is now directed, in our own State, by one whose 

 conclusions have come to be regarded as almost oracular, and who 

 has in his profession few if any peers — the Experiment Station. 

 Here is where all combinations called fertilizers mav be tested as 

 by a touchstone, and their true value determined; thus guarding 

 the farmer against imposition and fraud. This has already done 

 much to rid the market of spurious compounds, and watches with 

 vigilant eye over the farmers" interests. Many of you will remem- 

 ber how suddenly a fraudulent mixture — labeled •• Special Fertil- 

 izer," and made in New Haven. I think — disappeared from the 

 market after Professor Johnson's analysis of it revealed the fact 



