6 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



they will not be worth much when they attain their full growth, 

 either for field or road labor ; but put them to the yoke and 

 harness young, you will find their strength increasing with age 

 and practice, and their power made productive in useful work. 

 So it is with the mind, if left undisciplined ; its natural strength 

 will be comparatively useless for systematic labor ; but if prop- 

 erly trained for the work to which it is to be devoted for life, 

 its labor will be found fully equal in productiveness to the 

 physical labor which it will direct. 



What is wanted by our farmers is an education that shall not 

 only accumulate facts, but which shall enlarge the mind, develop 

 the powers of the brain, widen and deepen the channels of 

 information, and bring into operation those latent elements of 

 mental perception and concentration. And when these powers, 

 which every one possesses in a greatt^r or less degree, are fully 

 set to work in agricultural pursuits, then shall be seen our 

 farms, gardens in productiveness, and sought by business men 

 not only for pleasure but for profit. Then our farmers, instead 

 of thinking their brightest and most intelligent boys are fit only 

 for lawyers, doctors, or ministers, will give them an agricultural 

 profession, in which they may contribute in the highest sphere 

 •of human labors towards human happiness ; and in which they 

 may acquire both honor and wealth. 



But you ask, how shall this education be acquired ? I answer, 

 in the same way and manner that knowledge is -acquired in 

 other professions, arts, and sciences, by schools and colleges 

 where a thorough and scientific education may be obtained in 

 all those matters which pertain to agriculture in its broadest 

 sense, to agriculture as a science and as an art. Happily our 

 State and National Legislatures have turned their attention to 

 the importance of this subject, feeling tl>at for its advancement 

 a thorough mental culture is as necessary as physical train- 

 ing. Congress has already made conditional endowments for 

 agricultural education upon a permanent basis ; and with a view- 

 not only to collect and disseminate useful information, but also 

 with a view to systematize the experience of the past, to form 

 theories, and to test their value and uses by practice, and by 

 a thorough analytical investigation of the laws of nature, as 

 applied to vegetable and animal life, establish safe deductions, 

 and so to systematize and present the knowledge of agriculture, 



