550 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



to agriculture as an employment. I have alluded to a class of 

 young men, who seek what they think to be a more elevated 

 |)ursuit than the tillage of the field. They have an ambition 

 of rising in life, and they very naturally conclude that the 

 further they get from the ground, the higher they fly. Those 

 who unite a thirst for knowledge, with aspiring views, and 

 some who do not, are inclined to betake themselves to the uni- 

 versity ; and the door which admits them within its walls, shuts 

 out the vulgar toils of the field forever. It is a common obser- 

 vation, that the dullest boy in the family is selected to follow 

 the father's pursuits, on the ancestral grounds, while the one 

 which appears the most vivacious and active is singled out for 

 the college, or some more tasteful and supposed dignified vo- 

 cation. 



Now let the road to the best conducted agriculture be 

 through a scientific institution, let classes of youth go out an- 

 nually from the tuition of learned instructors, versed in those 

 sciences which are connected with the culture of the earth, let 

 them enter upon the business of farming as young men enter 

 the professions, after graduation at the college, and it would 

 contribute much to raise agriculture to that position which it 

 ought to hold among the other vocations of life ; and many 

 who are now a burden to the professions, and are wrecked in 

 the fluctuations of merchandise and commerce, would be found 

 pursuing a safe, happy, and useful course of life. President 

 Hitchcock saw in some of the agricultural schools which he 

 visited in Europe, young men from families distinguished by 

 their opulence and position in life, habited in frocks and per- 

 forming cheerfully some of the most coarse and uncleanly 

 labors connected with the establishments. Perhaps these indi- 

 viduals were drawn thither by the dignified associations which, 

 in their view, science and education had thrown around their 

 employments, and in other circumstances would have disdained 

 such menial offices, as they would deem them, and have 

 crowded into more elevated and congenial pursuits. 



Another desirable effect would follow. When commercial 

 men in our large cities have acquired large fortunes, and are 

 possessed of taste and fondness for display, they seek often to 



