344 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



I mention these things to show that boys should be encour- 

 aged to labor, and aided to act the man on a small scale ; and, 

 also, that they should be educated, as far as possible, at home. 

 If sent away, for any considerable length of time, to obtain 

 instruction, they will lose their interest in and love for the 

 farm. Our system of district and high school education cannot 

 be too highly appreciated by farmers. 



The low estimate which farmers too often have of themselves 

 and their occupation, is one of the surest barriers to the assump- 

 tion of their proper position in society. It is easy to discern, 

 the world over, an absurd prejudice against manual labor. 

 But why is it that manual labor is thought degrading? Why is it 

 that it is associated with the idea of meanness ? Why does any 

 considerable amount of education lift a man above it ? Why do 

 intelligent people shun it? Why is it an almost invariable rule, 

 " The more work the less pay, and the less work the more pay ? ' 

 Perhaps some may doubt or deny that things are as I have 

 stated. But observation and statistics will confirm the truth of 

 my assertions. And the reasons for this state of affairs are two- 

 fold. In the first place, labor is associated with ignorance — 

 and not without reason. Man makes a given force accomplish 

 a greater piece of work in proportion as he is intelligent. He 

 makes skill take the place of muscle. He obtains a better 

 product with less labor. Make men intelligent, then, and they 

 will find a shorter process for obtaining any result. They will 

 become inventive. Secondly, labor, as it is generally associated 

 here, is merely physical. Make it intelligent, and you will 

 enhance its value, as much as mind is superior to matter. We 

 yield to superiority of intellect, but not to brute force. It is 

 mind that acts on mind ; and, as this becomes enlightened, it 

 prefers to be thus acted upon. And as mind is the motive 

 power of man, who can measure the effect of one mind upon 

 another ? 



We often hear those who pursue the law, medicine, and the 

 ministry, spoken of as the privileged class in society. It is the 

 privilege of the minister to bo continually telling men of their 

 failings and proneness to sin ; that although the first human 

 pair were perfect when placed in the Garden of Eden, they fell 

 from that state of innocence ; and hence the necessity for min- 

 isters. It is the privilege of the lawyer to become conversant 



