No. 4.] BOARDS OF AGRICULTURE. 29 



education. Boards of agriculture must assist in advocating 

 this. 



It is sometimes asserted that it is impossible to determine 

 for what a boy is best adapted, and hence he must get a 

 general literary education, and then see in what direction 

 his tastes lead him. The successful farmer knows the 

 adaptation of all his farm animals ; he knows the quality of 

 soil in each of his fields, and to what it is best adapted; he 

 studies the market and transportation rates. Is it unreason- 

 able to suppose that ho will have become so familiar with 

 the nature of his children that their future career will be 

 guided more safely by him rather than by allowing thorn to 

 choose from their own inclinations ? We are told that there 

 was once a man who, wanting to learn for what profession 

 his son was best adapted, finally hit upon the expedient of 

 shutting him up in a room with a Bible, an apple and a 

 dollar bill. For he reasoned thus : If on his return he 

 found him reading the Bible, he would make a minister of 

 him; if eating the apple, a farmer; and if playing with the 

 dollar bill, a banker. Well, as the story goes, when he 

 returned he found the boy had solved all difficulties. He 

 had pocketed the dollar bill, had eaten the apple and was 

 sitting on the Bible. Recognizing the eternal fitness of 

 things, the anxious father immediately made a politician 

 out of him. This may not be an inapt illustration of the 

 way in which the career of many a youth is determined, 

 and which would, of course, be less sensible than leaving 

 the occupation to be chosen by the boy himself. 



But time is passing, and we have said but little in regard 

 to those in whose interest we specially desire to recommend 

 the efforts of boards of agriculture, — the young men and 

 women just entering upon the active duties of life. It is 

 upon them and their associates that the welfare of New 

 England will soon depend. The future of New England 

 depends not upon her gifted orators, eminent scholars and 

 cultured linguists, renowned and influential as they may be, 

 but upon the skill, energy and acquired ability of the vari- 

 ous industrial classes. Agriculture and manufactures form 

 the base of our prosperity, and as the standard of these in- 



