6Q MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



PKOFESSIONAL EDUCATION THE PRESENT 

 WANT OF AGRICULTURE. 



From an Address before the Ilousatonic Agricultural Society. 



BY "WILLIAM S. CLARK. 



Among the outward circumstances which contribute to human 

 happiness, doubtless all right-minded individuals would enumer- 

 ate, as of primary importance, pure air, bright sunshine and 

 pleasant scenery ; wholesome food, delicious fruits and charm- 

 ing flowers ; instructive and entertaining books and delight- 

 some music ; comely and comfortable clothing, tasteful and 

 convenient buildings and furniture ; loving and intelligent 

 friends, and an abundance of healthful, agreeable and remuner- 

 ative employment ; and these are the natural possessions of the 

 properly educated and truly enterprising husbandman. The 

 country homes of Massachusetts are indeed too often sadly 

 deficient in these elements of comfortable living, but it is not 

 the fault of agriculture as an occupation. Tliese things are 

 freely offered to every farmer who desires to have them, and 

 neither wealth, nor political power, nor extraordinary talent is 

 necessary for their acquisition. The great majority of our race 

 must be in the future, as they have been from the beginning, 

 tillers of the soil, producers of food and of the necessary 

 material for commerce and manufactures ; but they need not 

 be ignorant and devoid of taste. 



On the contrary, in the good time coming, the refining, 

 elevating and strengthening influences of high intellectual and 

 aesthetic culture will be considered as desirable in the agri- 

 cultural profession as they are in medicine, law or theology. 



It is, however, an indisputable fact that the farmers, even of 

 Massachusetts, to-day, with a few exceptions, fail almost utterly 



