THE PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE. 479 



ing has already begun, and goes on. Lut tlien I remember, as 

 well, how large a numerical majorit)' of those who arc called 

 farmers of Norfolk, fail altogether to represent tliemselves at 

 the fair ; how many others arc present, not as competitors, in 

 the arena, but only as gazers at a brilliant but distant and 

 uninstructive pageant ; and how inconsiderable, if I may say 

 so, is the number that carry away such vital impulses, or such 

 solid ideas, as will tell on the direct management of their own 

 acres, and their next year's seed, and crops, and stock. Tliis 

 living and ardent interest which turns every item in tlic spec- 

 tacle, every colt and cow, pig and parsnip, heifer and hen, rug 

 and rareripe, to a stimulating value, and nerves a more reso- 

 lute purpose to make the most of each man's or woman's per- 

 sonal chance, — this is the sort of ambition that pushes your 

 pursuit forward, converting it from a servile drudgery to one 

 of the elegant arts, and winning for it heights of excellence 

 and honor, I am afraid it must be acknowledged that intel- 

 lectual apathy has been the drowsy curse that has so long 

 somnambulized agriculture ; and if it will serve to soften the 

 accusation from an outside party, I will put the pulpit in with 

 the plough; though who knows but if there were less dull 

 planting, the wholesome contagion would run up the pulpit 

 stairs, and there would be less dull preaching ? Or, if it seems 

 ungracious to press this charge just when the sleepers arc 

 waking up, I remind you, on the other hand, that these occa- 

 sional signs of animation only cast the adjacent obstinacy into 

 a more palpable disgrace. It is not that cheering signals of 

 of invigorated intelligence arc not stirring the airj but that 

 these better notions are not made to work their Avay out, and 

 settle down on the actual fields, and regenerate your daily 

 operations. Hence, I say, what you want, is, by the help of 

 the school, some systematic means of pushing every improve- 

 ment out into the mass that have not yet arisen to come in 

 search of it. 



If you will allow me to ask questions. Are there no tokens to 

 be found among you, that some of the primary maxims of the 

 improved husbandry are as completely disregarded as the bulle- 

 tins of the Chinese rebellion ? Are there no fields lying iti 

 Norfolk, this fall, whose dwarfish crop^ proclaim as dismally 



