46 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



cannot resort. The contrast between the common sailor and 

 the skillful captain is no more striking than between the igno- 

 rant farm-laborer and the scientific agriculturist. The former 

 may possibly, from long practice, handle the hoe and plough 

 more dexterously than the latter, but he knows little more of 

 the composition of the soil he is hoeing and ploughing than the 

 horses and oxen in whose company he loves to spend his leisure 

 time. Unless some seed-yeast of thought is introduced into 

 his brains and they are set fermenting, he will continue the 

 same routine of labor year after year that his father did before 

 him, much as the oxen on the old Roman threshing floor went 

 round and round treading out the grain. Progress and 

 improvement are watchwords, the significance of which he 

 cannot comprehend. It is brain work, or theorizing, which 

 leads on to progress in agriculture, as in every other art. Not 

 every theory tried by practical tests proves correct, but because 

 some are visionary we must not condemn all theory. Had not 

 Fulton first contrived in his brains the theory of the application 

 of steam to the propulsion of boats, his boat had never been 

 propelled up the Hudson. That was a trying time when he 

 invited some of his friends to test, by practice, the truth of his 

 theory. I never read the account without admiration of the 

 genius and self-reliance of the bold theorist. Doubt and anxi- 

 ety were depicted on the face of his friends, and when, after 

 advancing a few rods, the boat stopped, they began to whisper, 

 " I wish I was out of it," " it is all gammon," " gas," " moon- 

 shine," Fulton calmly replied, " Have patience, gentlemen, 

 there is something wrong in the adjustment of the machinery ; 

 the boat will soon go ahead." And go ahead it did, and led 

 the inventor to fame, and many a boat-owner to fortune. 



Some may say this is all true with regard to navigation and 

 the mechanic arts. They require some science in their investi- 

 gation and development, but farming is a simple matter, 

 demanding only stout hands and a willing heart. Never was a 

 greater mistake. It has led to the ruin of many a farmer, and 

 more than all other causes combined has operated for the 

 depression of the farming interest, and the social inequality of 

 which complaint is made. If tlie bright boys are selected for 

 the professions and the blockheads for the farm, we must 

 expect inequality — it is inevitable. But it is not true that 



