326 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



THE FARMER'S NEED OF LITERARY DISUIPLINE. 



BY GEO. HOWELL. 

 [Read at Macon Institute.] 



Next to good farming, good thinking, and close observation, I would place 

 the ability to clearly and plainly express thoughts upon any topic to which 

 attention has been given, in language concise and felicitous. For, after one 

 has gathered from the fields specimens of former geological eras, or by long 

 and patient observation studied the culture and growth of plants, the habits of 

 insects, the laws of trade, or even the shiftings and twistings in politics, there 

 comes a benefit, a profit, as well as pleasure, in putting the thoughts concern- 

 ing these and other topics on paper, into essays, or in giving them to an 

 assembly in a clear and unembarrassed voice. 



To attain to this ability, pleasure, and profit requires literary discipline, the 

 advantages and need of which I desire to set forth, together with some other 

 thoughts. No one will question that the men and women who are now 

 engaged in agriculture are of sound mind and good judgment; that upon the 

 topics of every-day life, they consider as thoughtfully, they weigh as carefully, 

 they form opinions as correct, and they act as judiciously as those who have 

 given their time and attention to the other jDrofessions, or to the various 

 trades. No one will question their intelligence. The domain over which they 

 are spread out, extending, as it] does, from our own northern peninsula to the 

 cane, the cotton, and the rice fields of the south, and stretching away from 

 where the Mississippi flows downward to the gulf to where both oceans lie, is, 

 in its extent and vastness, beyond our conception. The variety and magnitude 

 of their gathered productions, when expressed in numbers, out-reach and 

 bewilder the mind, and their climate, with its ever-changing seasons, gives to us 



"A world that is full of the wine of beauty, 

 Had we only the time to drink it in." 



Here are our people, with a soil that is a treasure-house open to scientific 

 research, with fields that lie scattered over with relics that carry the mind 

 back into the dim and misty ages of the past, with a territory that is illimit- 

 able, with productions that are of unmeasured wealth, behind none other in 

 moral excellence and executive ability; and yet we are, as a people, but poorly 

 qualifieij to discuss questions pertaining to our calling in scientific assemblies, 

 or to represent our interests in the halls of legislation. 



What is lacking? What is needed? Not intelligence; not capacity; not 

 subjects of deep and wide interest; but simply literary culture, literary 

 discipline ; nothing more, nothing less. 



I would not for one moment either entertain or convey the idea that good 

 writing, fine speaking, or even eloquence can take the place of good sound 

 sense, cool deliberate reasoning, or executive ability. Nor do I believe that 

 any one of you will argue that they are either incompatible or inconsistent 

 with good farming. I think it was Hippocrates who said "Life Is short, art 

 long, the occasion fleeting, experience -fallacious, judgment diflicult." But 

 there are no words of discouragement in these words of Hippocrates. They 

 only hasten us on to greater exertion. They remind us of the swift-flying 

 moments. They tell us of the magnjtude of the work to be accomplished. 

 They hint at our own weaknesses. 



