G4 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



skill. Will you on that account say that the most thorough 

 discipline and theoretical education is not essential for him ; 

 that it will make him simply a theorist, a book physician, and 

 give over this noble profession to born physicians, seventh sons, 

 and quacks, who have had no training for their work ? We 

 have lived w^itli our souls darkened, and behind the age, if we 

 have not yet taken in, and made a part of our being, the idea 

 that mind controls matter in everything, everywhere, and shapes 

 it to its will, and that the more thoroughly the mind is 

 trained and disciplined, the more fully it is stored with facts, 

 truths and principles, the more powerful is its possessor in deal- 

 ing with practical material objects. 



It is this education which has made the medical profession 

 what it is ; this, which has enabled one laborer in the nineteenth 

 century to perform the work of ten in the sixteenth ; this, 

 which has built those solid structures which breast the flow of 

 your great rivers, which has invented your modern machinery, 

 built up your thriving manufacturing towns, your endless lines 

 of railroads, with their marvels of engineering, bridges and 

 tunnels, and it is this which has given practical power and effi- 

 cacy to the blows of the laborer in every department of im- 

 provement. Now, shall we deny to or neglect to provide for 

 agriculture that special training which has been the cause of 

 this wonderful progress in every other department of industry ? 

 No ; not if we are wise. Yes, if we are otherwise, and would 

 have those who come after us despise us for our short-sighted- 

 ness. 



But there are strong and sufficient reasons why the agricul- 

 turist should be the last to be neglected in regard to that 

 which is special and relates to this calling alone. The pursuits 

 of many of our people lead them to deal with dead matter, 

 over which they have nearly supreme control. Give to the 

 cotton or woollen manufacturer a pound of cotton or wool, and 

 he can tell you to an inch how much yarn or cloth it will make. 

 He can tell you to a mill how much it will cost to manufacture 

 it. The reason is, his machinery works with unvarying pre- 

 cision, and he controls all tlie circumstances of success. Not 

 so the farmer. His occupation, when he possesses the highest 

 intelligence, will have much about it that is uncertain and pre- 

 carious, for his success depends largely on those elemental and 



