I. S. SMITH'S ADDRESS. 417 



But in addition to the pecuniary advantage which the farmer 

 may draw from his scientific knowledge, in such cases as the 

 one mentioned, there is a higher advantage in the knowledge 

 itself. " Knowledge is power," not only in the sense, that it 

 gives its possessor a greater command of the material objects 

 around him, enables him to appropriate them more skilfully to 

 his own use, but also in the sense that he himself is a more 

 elevated, godlike being ; that he may hold, if he will, greater 

 sway over himself, and battle more successfully with the ten- 

 dencies to evil which he feels within him. The natural 

 sciences should be taught in our common schools. Every 

 child is naturally a naturalist. How much of the vulgarity, 

 how much of the rowdyism, how much of the intemperance, 

 revelry, vice of every description, which now disgraces society, 

 would be removed, if men's heads were filled with knowledge 

 instead of ignorance ! If the overflowing energies of the young 

 could be directed into the channels of knowledge, which nature 

 opens for them and invites them to pursue, in all her works ! 



And this leads me to another remark of no small importance 

 to the physical comfort, and intellectual and moral elevation of 

 the farmer. Farmers, as things now are, are required, at some 

 seasons of the year, to work too many hours a day for their 

 physical comfort, or intellectual improvement. 1 do not know 

 that it is possible, at these seasons, to abridge much the hours 

 of work. But something may be done to render the laborer 

 more comfortable under the burden which he bears. This is 

 a greater regard to cleanliness of person. When the horse has 

 been hard at work, and is brought to the stable white with 

 perspiration, what does the merciful man — the good farmer — 

 do to his beast ? He cleans him. He rubs him down. He 

 does not let the perspiration dry upon him, and clog the pores 

 of the skin. He cleans him. And this, he says, is as good as 

 a mess of oats. 



Now let the farmer apply the same principle to himself, and 

 the same results will follow. He comes in from his day's work, 

 exhausted by fatigue, his clothes wet with perspiration, hardly 

 able apparently, to sit up long enough to take his supper. He 

 washes his face and hands, takes his supper and retires to rest, 



