431 



Here is a husbandman on a farm valued at four thousand 

 dollars, not producing more than one third of what it might be 

 made to produce, yet supporting a family of eleven persons 

 and paying all expenses, excepting the labor and superintend- 

 ence of one man, and the farm gradually increasing in value 

 by every expenditure, however small, for its miprovement ; 

 this man, too, not working half the time, and he and his family 

 living in the enjoyment of all the luxuries, if they choose to 

 have them, which they can reasonably ask. Let such a man if 

 he will, take his two hundred and forty dollars income and la- 

 bor no more hours than he does in tlie country, and go into 

 Boston and try to support his family there. The end of the 

 year would show him a result which would make him ashamed 

 to complain of his present condition. 



XXII. Agricultural Education. — Middlesex county is the 

 seat of Harvard University ; the earliest public literary institu- 

 tion founded on this continent. It has been the long-cherished 

 object of private and public munificence. This subject may by 

 some be deemed inappropriate to an agricultural repdrt ; yet is 

 no class in the community more deeply interested than the ag- 

 ricultural, in the subject of education. 



It has always been my earnest desire to see the agricultual 

 profession exalted, and rendered attractive to the young. How 

 shall this be done ? The highest distinctions in human charac- 

 ter, the brightest ornaments which can be worn in life, those 

 which " sparkle with an inherent lustre all their own," and 

 differ from the mere artificial trappings of society, as the dia- 

 mond differs from the paste, are moral integrity and religious 

 principle. I shall not farther speak of these in this case. But 

 the distinction which, separate from these, gives elevation to the 

 character is the improvement of the mind. This confers a rank, 

 which wealth cannot purchase. This commands a respect, 

 which the proudest aristocracy may envy. 



In order to render the agricultural profession more attractive 

 and respectable, we must seek its intellectual elevation. In 



