22 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



to-day ill a mud hole, and to-morrow in a manure heap. His 

 waking hours are crowded with toil and perplexities, and even 

 in his sleep an everlasting pile of compost lies like a mountain 

 upon his breast. No wonder that farmers' sons flee from the 

 old homestead as if it .were the city of the plague, and that 

 farmers' daughters tliink, tliat to marry a farmer, is almost as 

 bad as not to marry at all. It is said that no one would go to 

 sea, if he knew beforehand the hardships of sea-life. When 

 less was known about farming, the boys staid at home. Now, 

 they know too much to do any such thing. 



In yet another w^ay, has the increase of knowledge in connec- 

 tion with husbandry, operated to its disadvantage. No busi- 

 ness, mechanical, mercantile — and I had almost said, profes- 

 sional — furnishes such facilities for varied kiLowledge when 

 knowledge becomes a collateral pursuit, as the business of the 

 farmer. There is nothing in or of the earth, or the atmosphere, 

 nothing relating to lire or water, nothing in the whole circuit 

 of chemical science that does not in some way concern him. 

 He likewise is deeply interested in the politics of the whole 

 world. For a war here, or a numerous emigration there, affects 

 the prices of his products, and he must be prepared to avail 

 himself of a rising market. This extensive information upon 

 subjects so diverse, is essential to the farmer's success and 

 prosperity. But will he who has made even respectable pro- 

 gress in the acquisition of this knowledge, be likely to remain 

 with the toilsome life and slow and scanty returns of the farm, 

 and this, when as a trader, a teacher, a lawyer, a doctor, or a 

 minister, he can enjoy — as he regards it — a more dignified, as 

 well as lucrative position ? No one will hesitate about the fact, 

 in this matter, or if he does, let him visit half the farm-houses 

 in Middlesex County and he will hesitate no longer. But I 

 need not labor the position, that knowledge of itself, will not 

 make a good farmer. If it were possil)le to make that knowl- 

 edge " perfect, wanting nothing," then it would. Perfect 

 knowledge implies perfection of every kind, because we have 

 ^reason to believe that the Almighty has established such rela- 

 tions and dependencies, such laws and agencies, that a perfect 

 knowledge of them on the part of man, would insure man's 

 moral perfection, for the reason that disobedience would be a 

 moral impossibility. But agricultural knowledge, — increase it 



