4G6 State Boarp of Agriculture, tfec. 



youth, and make their business their study, and those who 

 are most successful bend all their energies to the acquire- 

 ments of the science which they prof ess to teach or practice. 

 The farmer cannot reasonably hope to master his profession in 

 any other manner ; he nuist study, think and investigate 

 for himself. If he has not the means to enable him to 

 devote three or four years exclusively to study, he can, at 

 least, acquire habits of observation and mental application, 

 wliich will make his farm a school for his own education, 

 and that of his sons, also. Such a habit, with convenient 

 access to a good library, in the reading of which he can* 

 spend his winter evenings, is far better for a practical 

 farmer than the pursuit of a college course, even in our 

 so-called Agricultural College, without such a habit. 



The farm is the only place where a farmer can obtain a 

 practical agricultural education. It is to him what the 

 laboratory is to the chemist — the place to acquire, or at 

 least to perfect, his agricultural education. The time in 

 which to acquire it is as long as that which he spends 

 upon the farm, even if it be three score and ten years. If 

 he is a good scholar, and ambitious, he will master his pro- 

 fession ; but if stupid or indolent, he will find little to 

 learn in connection with it. 



Our fathers accepted a low position in society, and 

 taught their sons to look upon the pursuit of tlie learned 

 professions as more elevated and lionorable than their own, 

 because more intellectual. They regarded professional 

 men as their mental superiors, and accorded to them the 

 right to do the thinking and speaking for the public, if not 

 for themselves. The time has been when a lawyer had 



