82 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



in them was a fair sample of tlieir style of life, — then they are 

 gentlemen, and would be f^und on close acquaintance to have 

 all that is essentially graceful and chivalrous in tlie manners of 

 gentlemen ; aye, and would be recognized by all true gentlemen 

 throughout the world, as members of their noble fraternity, 

 the select and God-ordained aristocracy of the race. 



But there are weightier matters to consider. I am not here 

 to flatter the farming class. They know well enough already 

 the advantages of their condition, the dignity of their calling, 

 and their supreme importance in the body politic. I would 

 rather ask permission to speak some words of counsel and 

 warning. Claiming at least an honorary membership with the 

 class, by birth, by all the memories of childhood, and by the 

 uninterrupted associations of a lifetime, I shall feel privileged 

 to speak frankly of some of their deficiencies, dangers and duties. 

 There is time but for a single point. 



I confess, then, to a feeling of some solicitude respecting the 

 intellectual condition and prospects of the agricultural classes, 

 even in New England. 



It has been maintained by some good thinkers that there is 

 something in the life of farm laborers, as a class, less favorable 

 to mental vigor and alertness, than the life of mechanical 

 laborers, for instance, as a class, and that working farmers, as a 

 body, are in fact less intellectual than mechanics, as a body. 

 This alleged inferiority is accounted for in part, by the fact 

 that farmers generally are more solitary in their labors, do not 

 work so much in companies, and have therefore less opportunity 

 and fewer provocations to that constant discussion, and 

 exchange of thoughts, by which intellect is stimulated, sharp- 

 ened and kept awake. Then again, the work itself of farm 

 laborers, in its ordinary details, though it admits of, does not 

 absolutely require, that concentration of thought, and that 

 active play of the inventive and adaptive faculties, which are 

 required for success in mechanical or commercial pursuits. 



And I have heard it maintained further, that there is some 

 influence in continuous field labors, early and late, in summer's 

 heat and winter's cold, that tends to dull the brain, make it 

 sluggish — some physical influence unfavorable to mental 

 activity. In illustration of this view it is asserted that hard- 

 working farmers, as soon as they leave off work to rest, are 



