314 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



his employer and sets up business for himself, as an amateur. 

 Or, if he remains, and is diligent and faithful in his duties 

 to the end of his term, he will perhaps have been able to 

 learn only one branch of the business ; because most of ^he 

 trades are now so subdivided into departments, that while, 

 for example, he may have learned how to cut or put together 

 the upper part of a shoe, he may not be able to put on the 

 sole, or to be sure, when some other one has done it, whether 

 or not it is properly done. And the same is substantially 

 true of many other trades. When I was a little boy, my 

 father dressed his own beef and veal and mutton ; he took 

 the hides to the tanner and had them made into leather ; 

 then the shoe-maker came with his ' ' kit " and made and 

 repaired the shoes for the family. And a little Ijefore my 

 recollection a similar process represented the production 

 and preparation of the woollen and linen fabrics required for 

 the comfort of the household. Now, how all this is changed. 

 The shoe-maker with his lapstone, and the tailoress with her 

 measuring-tape, have been crowded to the wall ; and our 

 clothing and foot-wear are manufactured at wholesale, and 

 dealt out to us by sizes and numbers, and are even sent to 

 us through the mails. What is to l)e the ultimate result of 

 these chano'es remains for the future to disclose. What 

 seems important for us to do, is to recognize the fact that 

 progress is the inevitable order of things, and so shape our 

 course and trim our sails that we shall be prepared to avoid 

 the dangers and secure the advantages of the forces which 

 are active about us. 



Without controversy, success in the learned professions 

 requires a high order of intellectual endowment. But the 

 idea that the stupid boy would do well enough for a farmer 

 (if indeed such folly was ever believed) , has long since given 

 place to better common sense ; and, while it is freely admitted 

 that each class of occupations requires certain natural 

 endowments of a high grade, in order to render possible the 

 highest success, it is still true that the successful farmer of 

 to-day and of the future must have brain as well as brawn. 



But there are so many kinds as well as grades of intellect- 

 ual endowment, that there need be no apprehension l)ut 

 that each of the occupations can receive its due share, if only 



