RELATIONS OF AGRICULTURE TO MAN. 17 



relations and efTects of soils, manures, crops, etc., must be 

 understood by him, as the laws that govern and influence navi- 

 gation are to tlie mariner ; and it would be as wise in the latter 

 to go to sea without compass or quadrant, chronometer or 

 charts, designing to feel his way — to make his voyage practi- 

 cally instead of trusting to " book learning," as it is for the 

 farmer to go to his business without preparation in knowing the 

 great principles that have governed the world since the new 

 lands first appeared above the waters and gave birth to the 

 grasses, because he will not accept " book farming." To be 

 sure, after all, success must depend on practice ; and so it must 

 in law and physic, in divinity and mechanics ; but shall we 

 therefore have no schools of instruction in those branches ? 



What is practice but the application of the principles laid 

 down in the books to the details of a business ? The New 

 England farmer stands in the same relation to his exhausted 

 lands tliat the physician does to his patient, restoring vitality, 

 regulating food and directing employment. We have scientific 

 physicians and quack doctors ; and we have scientific farmers, 

 and quack farmers. It sometimes happens that the sagacious 

 quack is superior to the theoretrical physician ; but it is no 

 wiser to go into farming without knowledge than it is to expect 

 to be successful in medicine without study. But tliere is no 

 danger that our young farmers will neglect the acquisition of 

 agricultural knowledge. It is not in the New England mind to 

 see an effect and not inquire into the cause. Our natures 

 revolt at becoming machines, and all employment is without 

 pleasure where we do not understand the operations of the laws 

 that govern it. With that knowledge there is a world of delight 

 in nature. Every stone, and every bone, and every field and 

 every tree has its story ; every flower, every plant, every bird, 

 every animal has its history ! and all nature opens to the eye 

 new beauties, as do the heavens to the astronomer. It is to the 

 intelligent farmer that tliere are " books in the running brooks, 

 sermons in stones, and good in every thing." 



