108 ESSAY ON AGRICULTURAL LIBRARIES. 



man labors in the field — his mind is inquisitive — give him the proper 

 instractors, whether books or professors, and he will obtain the de- 

 sired information. Where there is a will, there is a way, and most 

 true is this of an ardent mind in the pursuit of knowledge. To such 

 a mind, open the doors of your library, and you open to it the re- 

 sources of wisdom and experience, of theory and science, in matters 

 of agriculture, for which now it may knock and knock in vain at the 

 door of any and every other library in the Coimty. 



As connected with county agricultural societies, a library will, 

 it is believed, be a new feature, and if the reasons here adduced in 

 fa-vor of it are conclusive, a bright and useful feature. It will be 

 an advance upon what has already been done by these institutions, 

 in exciting a laudable spirit of enterprise, and high achievement in 

 the cause of agriculture. Complaints are sometimes made — and 

 from high authorities — that agricultural societies have accomplished 

 their mission — that premiums for large crops and fat animals, are 

 rewards only for doing that which has time and again already been 

 done ; and that thus little progress in agricultural knowledge and 

 skill, is in fact made by means of these societies. The opinion that 

 agricultural societies have done all the good they can do, even by 

 the contiimafice of the oiTer of the old premiums, may be justly ques- 

 tioned, for the reason that but a small part of our farmers have yefc 

 reached the point, when they could be successful competitors for 

 these premiums. In the meantime, why not avail ourselves of other 

 means of progress, simultaneously with the offer of premiums ? Why 

 not advance a step beyond the ordinary instrumentalities, by estab- 

 lishing a library of useful works on agriculture ? Not only would 

 this be a new vantage ground gained, but it would open the way for 

 further progress. By enlarging the sources of knowledge, and, as 

 is presumable, knowledge itself, among the farming community, 

 would it not lead necessarily and directly to a higher standard of 

 excellence in agricultural skill, and to earnest and intelligent efforts 

 to attain to it ? If, as the poet says, 



To know ourselves diseased, is half the cure ; 

 .30, to learn our deiiciences in agriculture by careful study, not only 

 tof the skill and success of other farmers, but of the processes by 

 ■which their results was obtained, and the reasons of such processes, 

 would surely teach us the folly of old errors, and the means of cor- 

 T&ctmn: them. 



