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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Brussels carpets by the power-loom. Our coop- 

 ers will hear with dismay, and our brewers with 

 satisfaction, that by an invention of theirs recent- 

 ly introduced into the Exhibition, one man can do 

 the work of twenty in stave-making, and far more 

 efficiently. Such triumphs do not much affect, 

 perhaps, the mechanical superiority of the mother 

 country, but they serve to show us that while on 

 the one side nations less free and enlightened than 

 ours teach us how to throw a lustre and grace 

 over the peaceful arts, our own children are now 

 and then able to point out how we can improve 

 and extend them. — Mark Lane Express. 



KNOWING HOW. 



"That country which has the most intelligent laboring popu- 

 lation, will excel in every branch of industry." 



Gov. Boutwell. 



Brother farmer, what is the reason you cannot 

 go into your neighbor's work-shop and make a 

 wheel as well as he? What is the reason you 

 cannot repair your own clock or watch, as well as 

 the watchmaker? Why can you not shoe your 

 own horse, or your own feet? Why can you not 

 preach on Sunday, and argue law-cases, and am- 

 putate limbs the rest of the week ? Is it because 

 you have less natural understanding than the men 

 who do these things for you? By no means, it is 

 simply because you do not know how. 



This you acknowledge at once, and you flatter 

 yourselves, or rather, you have a right to assume, 

 that you might, with the same attention which 

 men of other occupations give to their business, 

 have been their equals in it. 



But, you have a neighbor, perhaps, who year 

 after year raises a crop of fifty bushels of corn to 

 the acre ; while your land, of the same quality, 

 produces but thirty ; and you have another neigh- 

 bor, perhaps, who always has his cattle fat and 

 sleek, while yours are poor, and his two year old 

 steers as large as your three year olds ! Why is 

 this? 



Now be honest in the matter. Don't say that 

 somehow he has better luck than you, or that 

 there is no particular reason, but it seems to hap- 

 pen so. Own up, like a man as you are, that it is 

 because he knows how, and you do not. Confess 

 it to yourself, if to nobody else, and then you will 

 know as much as the Governor, or at least as 

 much as he has said, in the above article from his 

 message, that intelligent labor will excel all other, 

 or as a friend of ours often tells us, " there is a good 

 deal in knowing how.'''' 



If we have as much natural capacity as our 

 neighbor, and as good land, and do our best, and 

 yet cannot raise as good crops, or cattle, as he, it 

 is because we don't know how. And when we 

 have come to this conclusion, we shall soon be 

 trying to learn, and how shall we learn? If you 

 want your son to learn the profession of law or 

 medicine, you know well enough how to have him 

 taught. First you send him to school, and rive 



him a good general education, that his mind may 

 be thoroughly disciplined by habits of attention 

 and investigation, so that he may be capable of 

 understanding whatever may be presented, and 

 then you place him with those who best know the 

 principles and practice of the particular profession 

 in view. 



If again you desire your son to be a mechanic, 

 you expect him to learn the trade of one who un- 

 derstands it. You would think a man crazy who 

 should advise you to let your son find out the busi- 

 ness of a wheelwright or blacksmith without any 

 teaching. 



In everything but agriculture, we see and feel 

 the advantages of education — of intelligent labor. 

 In every thing else, we believe in Progress. In 

 every other 'occupation, trade and profession, 

 there are men, admitted by all to be wiser and 

 more skilful than the rest, men to whom others of 

 the same business are ready to concede the posses- 

 sion of superior knowledge. But in agriculture, 

 the impression seems to be different. We feel re- 

 luctant to confess that others are better farmers 

 than ourselves, that they succeed better than we 

 because they understand their business better. 

 The idea seems to be that Agriculture, like the 

 Goddess of wisdom, was born full-grown ! and that 

 if we can only continue to do as our fathers did, it 

 is enough. How strange this idea! that a busi- 

 ness, involving the science of chemistry, of natural 

 philosophy, geology, botany, in short a wider 

 range of knowledge and research than any other, 

 should be the only one, that every man should 

 claim fully to understand. 



But the question returns, how shall we learn? 

 To the present generation, the answer is — learn 

 from your neighbors — learn from the newspapers, 

 and periodicals of the day, from Farmer's Clubs 

 in the villages, and meet weekly for discussion — 

 read books — in short, use every means to compare 

 your opinions with those of other men. 



For future generations, we hope better things. 

 Let the present Legislature see to it, that some 

 means are provided, for giving an agricultural ed- 

 ucation. Law schools, and Medical schools, and 

 schools of Divinity we already have, constantly 

 imparting to their respective students the means 

 of "intelligent labor," in their future professions. 

 But there is no school in Massachusetts for the 

 farmer. 



Not long ago, we received a letter from a gen- 

 tleman of another State, requesting us to advise 

 him where in our State, he could place his son, to 

 educate him in the principles and practice of agri- 

 culture, and we were ashamed to be obliged to in- 

 form him, that for that most important of all occu- 

 pations, our Commonwealth, so generous in the 

 general cause of education, had made no provi- 

 sion. 



Farmers of Massachusetts, attend to tlus mat- 



