76 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



without its use among the spindles even — that the best edu- 

 cated hands, other things being equal, are always preferred, and 

 command the highest wages. And so it is in all the mechanical 

 occupations. The reasons are obvious. A person accustomed 

 to observe and think, to note facts and draw inferences, to con- 

 duct processes of reflection, accustomed not only to work, but 

 to work understandingly, being acquainted not simply with the 

 practical manipulations of his art, but with the prijiciples and 

 reasons of them, is of necessity more fertile in resources, is 

 more to be relied on in critical emergencies, and more likely to 

 hit upon improvements, and produce a work of finished excel- 

 lence, than one who has never been taught to exercise his 

 reasoning powers, and has barely knowledge enough to unite a 

 broken thread, or load a gravel cart. 



Intellect and intelligence are inventive. They devise new 

 modes and suggest new applications of known principles. 

 They turn to use the knowledge that exists in the world ; the 

 accumulation of past centuries of labor and thought. They 

 profit by recorded failure and success, for both arc alike 

 instructive. They do not repeat blunders. They do not 

 attempt what carefully conducted experiment has demonstrated 

 to be impracticable. They welcome each new discovery, and 

 avail themselves of its aid. Ignorance always labors at disad- 

 vantage from not knowing what others have attempted, with or 

 without a happy result, and from not exercising the reasoning 

 and reflective powers. It is thus subjected to profitless lal)ors, 

 from which intelligence and thought are saved. What wonders 

 has labor-saving machinery alone accomplished for the benefit 

 and elevation of man, the alleviation of his sufferings, and 

 augmentation of his comforts in modern days. Intelligence 

 avails itself of its use, when practicable, and finds its reward. 

 Ignorance plods in the old paths, and is left behind iii tlie race. 

 It cannot compete successfully with intelligence. That this is 

 so in manufacturing, commercial and mechanical occupations, 

 every one knows. There are exceptions, but this is the law. 

 Is not the same true in agriculture ? As with success in war 

 in modern times, knowledge and skill have more to do than 

 mere muscular power, so it is, is it not, with the art exercised 

 by the peaceful farmer, as well as with those exercised by the 

 " lords of the spindle and the loom," the artisan and the 



