530 State Board of Agriculture, &c. 



Have jou not, heretofore, upon seeing any scintillations 

 of genius in your Ijoy, hastened to liie him away into some 

 other pursuit, wliere, alone, you tlioug]it he could adiicre 

 name and fame ? 



This has been in accordance with my observation, and 

 difi'ers only in tliis, in my own case, when a boy, that he 

 who reared me to manhood kept me too long from school,, 

 believing I knew enough to be a farmer, an opinion of which 

 I was then in doubt, and have since most emphatically dis- 

 proved. One to be a good farmer, as well as a happy man, 

 needs not only a good business, but a scholastic education, 

 and then the patience and industry for a lifetime in study and 

 observation, both in nature's fields and among his books, and 

 he will find ample room for the display of all his faculties, be 

 they ever so brilliant, or I -is ambition, be it ever so untiring. 

 But I wish, before closing, to point to one or two more 

 opportunities that now are in waiting for the rising young 

 farmer. 



There is a great need of more definite knowledge upon 

 many of the operations of tlie farm. Experiments, to be 

 worth anything, must be more methodical and thorough. We 

 are obliged now to take the " say so," or " guess so," too 

 much, of somebody, as a guide in our manner of conducting 

 our farms. Some one of us will try a certain fertilizer that 

 is upon the market, claiming, with flaming testimonials, our 

 patronage, and utterly fail, because the soil or conditions are 

 so unlike that where success followed ; and still we may 

 have used it according to directions. One farmer will tell 

 us he can raise corn anywhere in New England where the 

 soil is suitable, for less than fifty cents a bushel. Another 



