346 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



to do this helps us, also, to draw out the knowledge of others. 

 The ability to converse with force and clearness, with grace and 

 propriety, should be, therefore, a part of the farmer's education. 

 His isolation from society and his toilsome life render him 

 liable to become coarse and awkward in manners and speech. 

 Hence we observe one great use of farmers' clubs, farmers' fes- 

 tivals and agricultural fairs. Here his stock of knowledge may 

 be enlarged, and with it his respect for his calling and his self- 

 respect will be increased. His social powers will here be called 

 into direct action. A clear expression of his thoughts will 

 enable him to exert a greater influence upon others, and, at the 

 same time, it will strengthen the distinctness of his own percep- 

 tions. He who can give the most intelligible expression of his 

 ideas in the fewest words has the best command of language ; 

 and his command of language may be made more forcible by 

 proper muscular action. There is a language in action, in the 

 features of the face, in the expression of the eye — a language 

 which speaks from the heart, and is beyond the utterance of the 

 voice. 



The farmer should improve, then, every opportunity to culti- 

 vate his social nature. It is the attrition of mind with mind 

 which polishes and gives vital force to man. He must take time 

 for social intercourse and intellectual improvement. Conversa- 

 tion is the great recreation of life, stirring us to activity, cheer- 

 ing us around our hearthstones, moving the heart gently, often 

 deeply, crowding the memories of years into moments, and 

 kindling the purest and happiest emotions. 



The farmer has no good reason for discouragement. No 

 nation or people on earth has ever equalled our own New Eng- 

 land, in the rapid increase of knowledge, in the ability to seize 

 upon and put into use every conceivable power and appliance 

 by which the condition of man may be elevated, his capacities 

 enlarged and his wants supplied. We have annihilated time 

 and space. By aid of machinery, we make the labor of one 

 man accomplish that of ten or a hundred others. The rapid 

 strides, which the mass of the people are making in intelligence, 

 refinement and self-respect, in all that adds to the comforts of 

 life and extends the benefits of civilization, have been no less 

 wonderful. With churches, we have district schools, high 

 schools, academies, colleges, agricultural colleges, institutes of 



