48 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



for this I name " The works of the immortal Shakspeare," the 

 great delineator of human character, who played with the pas- 

 sions and humors of men as a skillful violinist plays with his 

 strings. It is a mistaken notion that the farmer's library should 

 consist of works on agriculture solely.* These are good so far 

 as they go, but perusing these alone we should become men of 

 one idea. Farming is our occupation, and with its principles 

 and practical details we should endeavor to be as familiar as is 

 the skillful physician with the anatomy and physiology of the 

 human body. But the world is wide, and there are other 

 sciences and other pursuits besides agriculture, and if we wish 

 to be men among men, we must educate the whole man. If 

 some of our faculties are developed and others dwarfed, we 

 become terribly one-sided. We become monsters, not men. 

 For the perfect development of our manhood we shall need, 

 besides the four books already mentioned, a live agricultural 

 paper, to keep us posted as to the latest inventions in machin- 

 ery, the recently discovered seedling fruits and tubers, and 

 fresh suggestions from the practical culturists of the present 

 day. A daily newspaper is also an essential educator in these 

 fast days. Tlie local weekly is good in its place, and we hope 

 the " Sun " will ever shine and the " Eagle " ever soar over 

 Pittsfield, but no man, whether farmer or mechanic, should go 

 to bed without knowing what Queen Victoria had for dinner ; 

 and what were the last movements on the political chess-board 

 of Louis Napoleon and Count Bismarck. The newspaper of 

 the present day is the great educator of the masses. The 

 quarto sheet contains a volume of miscellanies, and treats of 

 more subjects than Solomon ever dreamed of, though " he 

 spake of trees from the cedar that is in Lebanon, even unto 

 the hyssop that springeth out of the wall, and of beasts and of 

 fowls, and of creeping things, and of fishes." 



We rejoice in the assurance that this matter of agricultural 

 education is receiving in our day, and especially in our State, 

 something of the attention which its importance demands. We 

 have long had our schools for the prophets, oiir normal schools, and 

 schools for the lawyers and doctors ; and yesterday was opened, 

 under most favorable circumstances, the first session of the 

 Massachusetts Agricultural College. A telegram received from 

 President Clark this morning announces that thirty-four young 



