BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



HARNESS YOUR FORCES. 



BY DR. (i. M. TWITCHELL, AUGUSTA, ME. 



We stand to-day in the midst of a world of transcendent 

 beauty. The Master's touch has covered the earth with a 

 carpet no human hand can equal, decked the trees with gar- 

 ments of beauty, and scattered far and wide the flaming 

 banners of promise for the golden harvest. 'Tis a marvelous 

 unfolding ; yet we have not heard the music nor felt the touch 

 of the Ai-tist, because our forces have not been harnessed to 

 grasp the one or hear the other. I would that I might jar 

 the kaleidoscope of your thought so that the prisms would 

 change form just a little, and let my simple story take 

 possession. 



Growth never follows the single thought of revenue. The 

 man who measures his Avork solely by the possible output, 

 and lives in that atmosphere of utility, is a plodder ; and, 

 while he may accumulate, his poverty increases. New 

 England agriculture suffers because the conscious and un- 

 conscious influence of the a^e magnifies the financial issues 

 of the farm. It is the man who grasps large problems who 

 succeeds ; that one Avhose thought is entirely concerned 

 with details is buried under a mountain of difficulties. 

 Either the man or the farm will be master. 



The agriculture of the twentieth century needs to be keyed 

 to a more exultant note. I do not forget the toil, the 

 difficulties, which have encompassed and still surround 

 the farmer ; but so sure as harvest follows seed time must the 

 agriculture of the next twenty-five years keep step with the 

 industrial life, or it will be lost in the great forward move- 

 ment of the century. Your forces must be harnessed for 

 mastery, if it is to be demonstrated, as it may be, that this 



