100 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. 



discovery of the New World excited activity and aroused a 

 spirit of enterprise. The art of agriculture is older than 

 history, while the science of agriculture is modern. As 

 agriculture is the most essential of our productive industries, 

 so it has been the most conservative. For a period of 

 nearly four thousand years, during which population in- 

 creased enormously and the race advanced in general cul- 

 ture, there was little advance in the art of agriculture. If 

 it made any progress at all, it was so small that it appeared 

 as nothing when compared with the progress in other arts. 

 To possess a farm or landed estate, in those times, gave the 

 owner dignity and conveyed with it special privileges and 

 social honor ; but the laborers and actual tillers of the soil 

 were held in social inferiority. The degradation that has 

 been associated with labor in general, and with held laljor in 

 particular, has been a very great hindrance to the develop- 

 ment of agriculture. Perseverance, intelligence and edu- 

 cation are necessary to the sure success of agriculture. 

 Wherever we find the laborer ignorant we are almost sure 

 to find the farming tools heavy and unsuitable for rapid 

 work. We see this on the large cotton and sugar planta- 

 tions, where we often find the most improved machines 

 for the preparation of the crop used alongside of the most 

 clumsy tools and implements in the field. Lal)or-saving 

 machines are constantly coming into use, and the inventions 

 come from places where the workmen are bright and intel- 

 ligent. Competition in America is not merely a competi- 

 tion of land, soil and climate, it is a competition of methods 

 and of men. People are beginning to learn that it requires 

 a bright intelligent man to become a successful farmer. He 

 must study his business closely, if he expects to succeed and 

 make the farm pay. The competition of our farmers with 

 the farmers of the West is sharp and he needs to know what 

 to produce and how to produce it, and whether to be a gen- 

 eral or a special farmer. In some j^laces hay may l)e the 

 special crop, in others apples or cranberries, while in the 

 South cotton and rice are the principal crops. In our Com- 

 monwealth, mixed farming may l)e preferable, as it must 

 constitute the occupation of most of our farmers. The 

 more dense the population the greater the necessity of 



