176 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



right, as a poiut of law, to let his farm run out, no one can ques- 

 tion, and the same right applies to each individual in his treatment 

 of his mind and heart. If he so will, I cannot sa}- him naj' ! 

 Though he insist on living in a small range of ideas, I cannot say 

 him nay ; and if he is my neighbor I will treat him kindly, and 

 when he is dead I will help to bury him ; but all the time I must 

 be allowed to feel that (so to phrase it) his is a very miserable 

 way to carry on a farm ! — a lamentable misuse of the field that 

 has been given him ; and all this from the failure to use the fitting 

 fertilizers ! 



But there is another remark to be made in this connection. 

 There are a great many poor, some absolutely bogus, fertilizers 

 advertised extensively ; those which furnish a transient stimulant 

 to the mind, but no " plant food." Out of these only weeds will 

 grow. 



And here is a word which it may not be amiss to say in this 

 connection and bearing upon an important practical subject. 

 Under our present system of common school education our 

 young people are constantly being cheated out of a certain form 

 of valuable training (a fertilizing agency) which they have a right 

 to claim. Confined they are almost exclusively to text books. 

 They should have aroused within an interest in and knowledge of 

 things outside of books, — a knowledge of what is going on in the 

 world today, — improvements, inventions, social organizations, 

 moral reforms, duties of citizens, and the like. And the " qualifi- 

 cations " of every teacher should embrace this idea. If one full 

 quarter of all the time which our public schools now give to what 

 are called the higher branches and ornamental culture, were to be 

 devoted to the work of thoroughly interesting the pupils in this 

 class of subjects, — an interest that would stay b}- them all their 

 lives, — our 3'oung men and women would really be much better 

 educated than they are now, and better prepared to engage in 

 conversation and to act sensibly when out in the world. This 

 is one form of intellectual fertilizing which I should rejoice to see 

 generally adopted. 



Applj' also the same to our system of college education ; give 

 more time to getting ingrained into our young men the spirit 

 of the best life of today ; see to it that thej' realize the duties 

 which pertain to American citizenship, — to high honor in business 

 transactions ; to the sense of moral responsibilities ; that they 



