412 ' MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



acre instead of one ? How is it that oxen of the largest size 

 are well fatted at three years of age ? or that pigs of improved 

 forms and properties are fit for slaughter at nine or ten months, 

 when it formerly required two years to reach that condition ? 

 Because theorists have theorized, and experimentalists have 

 experimented, and rich men have freely spent their money, and 

 fancy farmers have carried out their fancies, and book farmers 

 have diligently studied their books, and agricultural chemists 

 have investigated the qualities of soils and manures, and skilful 

 mechanics have embodied the principles of natural philosophy 

 in better machines and tools than our fathers dreamed of; and 

 then all have brought their contributions into a common stock, 

 and formed agricultural societies; and these again have dis- 

 tributed the accumulated gains into a thousand channels, and 

 the practical farmer has reaped the result of the whole opera- 

 tion in additions to his knowledge and skill. The individual 

 theorists and chemists and fanciers and book men may not 

 always increase their wealth ; they are not an eminently telfish 

 race. But tlie community gains, and even they who ungener- 

 ously depreciate the enterprise, come in for their share of the 

 profits. 



Here then is the justification of our association. And yet I 

 have not mentioned all the elements that enter into the result. 

 In scarcely any other art do improvements advance so slowly as 

 in agriculture, when not impelled by associated activities. The 

 farmer works alone, and misses the impetus of society. Why 

 does the Italian peasant scratch the ground with a wooden 

 plough drawn by a donkey and a woman ? or the Egyptian fel- 

 lah partially disturb three inches of soil with a crooked stick ? 

 Partly because in their countries there is no common sentiment 

 in which they and their fellow-laborers can sympathize ; no 

 associations to create that sentiment ; no free thought to stimu- 

 late it ; no sufficient intelligence for its basis ; no means of 

 diffusing it were it created. An enlightened public opinion 

 does not quicken their minds to reflection or animate their 

 labors by the hope of larger gains. 



I think, however, I may be excused from pressing upon this 

 audience the grounds that justify associations like ours. The 

 existence of this and similar societies is vindicated by the fruits 

 they have produced. 



