86 . MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



ready to supply them to us through books ? Do we read, or 

 only rest content with knowing how to read ? 



And do we write ? — that is, do we possess and exercise the 

 faculty and habit of giving a connected and visible expression 

 to our thoughts ? To make out a bill of sale and sign one's 

 name to it is not writing, in any intellectual sense of the word. 

 To think clearly, logically, connectedly, and be able to put down 

 one's thought and feeling in fair grammatical sentences, so as 

 to communicate the thought and feeling from one mind to 

 another — that is alone writing. And what proportion of the 

 farming class, or indeed of almost any class, do that, or can do 

 it? 



And then do we cipher ? That means something more than 

 doing, or having once done, the sums in the school arithmetic, 

 or being able to foot up a column of figures, or cast the interest 

 on a promissory note. It means, or ought to mean, the keep- 

 ing our powers of calculation, of analysis, and of severe, 

 accurate reasoning, in vigorous and habitual exercise. Mere 

 school-ciphering is not worth much, as mental culture, except 

 as a preparation for this. 



When farmers do actually read, write, and cipher, as well as 

 they know how, they may consider that their minds are getting 

 well educated, and not before — neither farmers nor anybody 

 else. 



I should say that a farm itself contains and presents oppor- 

 tunities for mental culture, and of the noblest sort too. To 

 carry on a farm with a high intelligence and in the best manner, 

 observing all the facts, and studying the capacities and adapta- 

 tions of soils, seasons, weathers, winds, markets, keeping an 

 ear open to all suggested improvements, and a mind keenly dis- 

 criminating between the real ones and the seeming, to master 

 what is valuable in agricultural science, and make that science 

 practical, concrete it into methods, and crops, and tools, and 

 manures, and fields, brought to the highest state of be&uty and 

 productiveness — to do that is itself an education. To do that 

 will keep stupidity out of a man's brain, if any thing can. A 

 farm so conducted, — that is, a farm with a live mind on it, — is 

 as good a college to enter and graduate in, as any in the land. 

 Cultivate your farm thoroughly, and your farm will cultivate 

 you nobly. Make your farm in the best sense, and at all points, 



