32 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



able, and the rules of breeding by which they could be obtained. 

 While the distinguished agriculturists of Europe were applying 

 unbounded wealth to the development of the Merino sheep, 

 these quiet and unknown farmers of Vermont were exercising 

 the judgment, which they acquired by close daily observation ; 

 and in the competition which ensued, all the sheep-breeders of 

 Europe "were astonished at the result. 



It is knowledge of this kind which we already possess. We 

 have that cultivation of tlie eye, which however primary and 

 perhaps aboriginal it may be, is nevertheless of the highest 

 practical utility, and belongs to that serviceable information 

 which lies at the foundation of a successful management of the 

 business of life. It is that kind of education, without which all 

 higher culture is of no avail. It is that fundamental principle, 

 upon whicli can be built the best superstructure. It really 

 constitutes the difference which exists between an education 

 intended to make good farmers, and an education intended to 

 make good members of the learned professions. The lawyer 

 enlarges and strengthens his mind by diligent application to 

 those great principles of law which underlie the structure of all 

 society ; he sharpens his intellect by contests in the courts ; he 

 cultivates his judgment by careful discrimination in the com- 

 parison of testimony and in the application of law and prece- 

 dent; and he becomes great by the artificial cultivation of great 

 natural powers. The physician and surgeon stores his mind 

 with an accurate knowledge of the human system, its anatomical 

 structure, its physiological laws, its pathological conditions, and 

 learns to apply his information in the operating room, and at 

 the bedside of his patient. The theologian may become pro- 

 foundly learned in all the -wisdom of the schools ; but it is daily 

 service in the ministry which teaches him to bind up the broken 

 heart, and to carry consolation and spiritual truth into the trials 

 of life. The farmer, on the contrary, learns his most practical 

 lesson long before he enters upon his own labors, when, as a boy 

 and young man, he grows up among the scenes and duties of 

 his father's farm. How far soever he may be led beyond all 

 this, by the addition of theoretical education, he will still find 

 that in many matters of skilful and prudent management, his 

 best lessons were learned among the duties of the field, and in 

 the care of the domestic animals about him. I do not say that 



