414 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



phcrc, manures and their application, tools and their use, and 

 the various methods of operation. It requires a ready wit, 

 mechanical invention, power to adapt means to ends, wise 

 judgment and calculation. These are qualities that distinguish 

 the genus Yankee, qualities produced and fostered hy our posi- 

 tion in a new country, by common school education and by 

 poverty. Our young men are trained to reason and discrimi- 

 nate, and he who has not had the discipline which brings out 

 these qualities stands a small chance of success. 



But much more than this is demanded by our condition. 

 School learning is rather a preparation for special training than 

 a substitute for it. We admit this in reference to every branch 

 of business except agriculture, in which the highest skill is 

 thought to come as reading and writing did to Dogberry — by 

 nature. The boy who is destined to law or medicine goes from 

 the town school to the high school, from the high school to 

 college, from college to the school of law or medicine, and after 

 fifteen or twenty years' study is deemed qualified to commence 

 the practice of his calling. But the farmer's son has no special 

 instruction ; with the imperfect education of the connnon 

 school he undertakes a task that might employ the best talents 

 amply developed by culture. The consequence is that he is 

 apt to walk implicitly in the beaten track, to believe that his 

 fatlier employed and exhausted all wisdom, and that the practi- 

 cal sagacity acquired by experience furnishes a sufficient pledge 

 of success. But, how can an art be properly improved without 

 a knowledge of its theory ? Practical sagacity has no insight 

 into the mysteries of science. If tlie soil be exhausted by 

 repeated croppings, it does not know the best means of restor- 

 ing its fertility. It may hit upon a lucky guess, or it may lose 

 time and money for nothing. If we would not forever blunder 

 along in the dark, Ave must banish our foolish cant about book- 

 farming, recognize our ignorance and consent to be taught by 

 men wiser than ourselves. We must get rid of the idea of the 

 all-sufficiency of practice and the worthlessncss of theory. Let 

 us state in a few words what we mean by practical and theoreti- 

 cal. "A mere practical farmer is a man who knows how to 

 manage his ground to advantage. ' His natural abilities and the 

 education of his circumstances enable him to do this. A theo- 

 retical farmer, on the other hand, is a man who understands 



