12 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



experiments, and use them without knowing why : he must 

 be a thoughtful man, a progressive man. Now, the difference 

 between the automatic reader of books and the thoughtful 

 man is as wide as from the centre to the poles. The unthink- 

 ing man is like the bucket that goes to the well to be filled 

 with water, or the sack that goes to the mill to be filled with 

 grain. The water that fills the bucket, or the grain that fills 

 the sack, cannot do either vessel any good : it may do them 

 much harm by over-filling, or filling beyond their capacity. 

 This filling process is all too common. There are too many 

 empty buckets and sacks on our farms to-day ; and they are 

 found everywhere, even in our churches and lecture-rooms, 

 — empty heads waiting to be filled. 



The thoughtful man is altogether a different person. He 

 finds a subject for his thoughts, and a lesson for his learning, 

 in every thing around him. The thoughtful farmer never 

 takes the tiny seed into his hand, without studying the law 

 of germination, of development, and death. He never takes 

 hold of the handles of his plough, without studying the form 

 and structure of the machine, and how it might be improved 

 so as to leave his furrow straight and smooth ; and, if he is 

 very thoughtful, he goes down below the furrow of his plough, 

 and studies geology and mechanism at the same time. He 

 not only looks into books, and reads them well ; but he makes 

 books for others to read. He not only consults authors, and 

 compares their different theories ; but he becomes an author 

 himself, and constructs theories for others to follow. He not 

 only reads history ; but he makes history. He not only famil- 

 iarizes himself with the deductions of science ; but he devel- 

 ops and elaborates and utilizes science, and makes it con- 

 tribute to his success as a farmer. 



Another necessary element of success in the character 

 of the farmer is a well-balanced and well-developed moral 

 nature. For no man can be truly honest who has not a well- 

 developed moral nature ; and honesty or integrity of char- 

 acter is the basis of all greatness or goodness in any indi- 

 vidual. But such is the condition of the farmer's life, and 

 such is the nature of the elements and properties with 

 which he constantly comes in contact, that all tricks, all 

 deceptions, all sham and duplicity, should be forever ban- 

 ished from the farm. This is all the more needful for the 



