AN EDUCATED FARMER. 53 



the way of lectures, which they will unquestionably be glad to 

 do. I realize the difficulties which beset the beginning of this 

 institution, the bringing it into the world, as well as my friend 

 Perkins ; but they do not discourage me at all. We have noth- 

 ing in the past to guide us, to be sure ; but this I think I know, 

 that what it is possible for man to do can be done in Massa- 

 chusetts ; and since there has always been faith that this thing 

 can be done — since there have been experiments made in 

 Europe, adapted to their peculiar circumstances, which have 

 been successful — we can see that it is only necessary to adapt 

 this college to the circumstances of the case, in our country, to 

 make it a success. If we say it will not succeed, we overwhelm 

 it with doubt in the public mind immediately ; and I think that 

 has been said quite enough. But if we say, " We will take hold 

 and help it succeed, and make it succeed," then success is 

 assured. You have got the right man ; you have got the good 

 will of the legislature ; you have certainly got the friendly aid 

 and support of this Board of Agriculture ; you have certainly 

 got, on the part of the great public, an earnest desire to have 

 the experiment succeed ; and as against all that, you have only 

 the fear that it may not succeed. Throw away fear and insist 

 that it shall succeed. 



There comes into my mind at this moment an illustration of 

 what I have said in regard to education improving the farmer 

 and making him love the farm, if he loves the land at all — if he 

 takes farming for his profession. We have in the town of Con- 

 cord a young man who was an artisan of such rare skill that he 

 acquired property very fast. He wanted to be a farmer, and 

 before buying a farm he went to Europe to qualify himself to be 

 an intellectual farmer. He went to an Agricultural College 

 there, and stayed two or three years, and after learning all 

 he could learn there, he came back, and in the most quiet 

 and unpretending manner went to farming like his neighbors ; 

 and on a farm of twenty-five acres he now supports four times 

 as many cattle as the person he bought of, and two more cattle 

 than any other farmer in Concord on the same number of acres. 

 He does it by force of intelligence, by reason of the adaptation 

 of means to ends, through the scientific methods which he has 

 learned abroad in relation to agriculture. He quickens, you 

 see, all that part of the town in which he lives ; he quickens 



