236 STATE BOAKD OF AGRICULTUEE. 



out its value, and prepared him to be as good a farmer as his father -was, but no 

 tetter. 



Not having obtained the mental discipline nor the awakened desire for investi- 

 gation that a scientific education gives, surrounded in liis farmer home with 

 little that was calculated to awaken thought in the uncultivated mind, having 

 the advantage of a very limited library if any, or papers, especially such as were 

 devoted to agricultural interests, daily tired with daily toil, is it any wonder that 

 he did not more rapidly push his investigations of those intricate laws of nature 

 that underlie his calling? No doubt the provisions of nature are ample and 

 sure, so that with proper management the field need never diminish in its pro- 

 ductiveness, cereals, fruits, and vegetables be constantly developing greater 

 degrees of beauty and excellence, and the domestic animals, by a thorough 

 knowledge of the laws that govern their breeding and care, and a careful com- 

 pliance with those laws, be steadily improved and brought towards a greater 

 degree of j^erfection and consequent profit than has ever yet been attained. 



Great advancement has been made, especially during the past few years. 

 But is it strange that it has not been more rapid, or that other callings have in 

 many resjDCcts outstripped us in the race? With all the improvements that 

 have been made in the style of farming and in agricultural machinery, in the 

 quality and variety of our grains, vegetables, and fruits, — in our flocks and 

 herds, still the facts will warrant us in saying that in many, if not all, the 

 various departments of manufacture and mechanic arts, in commerce, in mer- 

 chandising, and in finance, there has been far more improvement and advance 

 during the last half century than there has been in agriculture. These occu- 

 pations have been more completely systematized, have called to their aid a 

 greater number of thoroughly discijDlined minds. Unlike the management on 

 the most of our farms, they are almost universally carried on with a complete 

 system of book accounts, whereby may be understood the sources of profit and 

 the occasions of loss. The laws that govern those various departments of busi- 

 ness have long been the study of the most earnest and wisest of those connected 

 therewith, and plans for very extensive cooperation among those of like pursuits 

 and interest have been devised and carried out. Also vast improvements have 

 been made in the machinery used in connection witli manufacture and com- 

 merce, diminishing in a corresponding degree the cost of production and trans- 

 portation. Consequently the per cent of profit upon capital invested in those 

 pursuits has been far greater than upon that invested in agriculture, as statis- 

 tics W'ill show. And as a natural result those interests have come to assume 

 a greater prominence in public estimation, and those connected therewith to 

 exert a far greater influence according to their number in shaping the business 

 and political relations and policy of our country than have the much more 

 numerous class of farmers. 



These and many other causes that might be referred to have had an influence 

 to induce our young men, especially those who had enjoyed the best advantages 

 for education, to abandon the farm, and to leave upon their minds the impres- 

 sion that other occupations and professions were not only less laborious and 

 more lucrative, but also more honorable. Hence leaving this, which should be 

 the noblest of all pursuits, as it is the most important, they have sought their 

 life work in the overcrowded professions, or amidst the exciting competitions of 

 more active business life. 



Brother farmers, if there are evils in this regard to be corrected, if it is desira- 



