AMERICAN JOURNAL 



OF 



AGRICULTURE AND SCIENCE, 



No. XIII. MAY, 1847. 



THOUGHTS ON REQUISITES OF FARMING. 



BY PROF. J. DARBY. 



It has been a prevalent idea, in this country at least, that to be 

 a good farmer, required little or no exercise of intellectual power; 

 that physical ability was alone requisite lor the successful conduct 

 of all farming operations. To hoe, plow, and perform other like 

 necessary duties, with skill and adroitness, were the only essential 

 qualifications of one devoted to the cultivation of the soiL The 

 routine of the father was the routine of son, without variation or 

 change. No matter how learned or intellectual the owner of a 

 farm might be, his farm afforded no scope for the operation of his 

 abilities, farther than making his bargains and ornamenting his 

 estate. It is well known that the meaning of the phrase, " to be 

 educated for a farmer," was, that " reading, writing, and cypher- 

 ing," constituted the sum of all necessary attainments. To bestow 

 a liberal education on a boy devoted to the farm, was not to be 

 thought of; a most profligate waste of money, all would have 

 considered it, to be thus employed. 



The origin of these ideas we shall not attempt to trace. That 

 they are false, degrading and injurious to the best interests of so- 

 ciety, there can be no doubt. 



The establishment of such journals as yours will dissipate these 

 false notions; and we see in their origin, harbingers of a brighter 

 day; and we trust that the time is not far distant, when a farmer 

 uneducated in all the varied laws and phenomena which he is 

 called to manage and control, will be a much rarer coincidence 

 than it now is to find an uneducated lawyer, doctor, or minister. 



Vol. v.. No. 13. 16 



