THE FARMER MUST KNOW. 7T 



mechanic ? Will intelligence here not help a man ? Will it 

 save him from no vain labors, no harrassing disappointments ? 

 Has not the intelligent farmer the same advantage over the 

 unintelligent as the intelligent manufacturer, merchant or 

 mechanic over an ignorant competitor? Has he no need of 

 shrewdness, no need of knowledge so useful to others ? The 

 nature and succession of crops, modes of culture, methods of 

 increasing the productiveness of the earth ; what is adapted to 

 this situation and soil, and what to that ; climate, the markets, 

 has intelligence, calculation, knowledge, nothing to do with 

 these? It has much, I should think. He who avails himself 

 of the latest lights, discoveries and improvements, is in a bet- 

 ter condition to succeed than one who is ignorant of them. 

 What a difference in travel between the old lumbering method 

 of stage-coaching and the present railway speed, comfort and 

 ease. Is there not a similar difference in other things, between 

 the old and the new ? To maintain his relative position and 

 succeed, a man, in these days, must know. The farmer must 

 know. It has been said, that now, " bayonets think." So we 

 may say, the hoe and the spade must think. Labor must 

 know. 



In some particulars, the old Roman agriculture has not been 

 surpassed, if it has been equalled, by any efforts of modern 

 times ; and the reason assigned is, " because the greatest and 

 wisest men among the Romans applied themselves to the study 

 and practice of it." Pliny, alluding to the abundance of corn 

 in Rome in ancient times, asks : " What was the cause of this 

 fruitfulness ? Was it because, in those times, the lands were 

 cultivated by the hands even of generals ; the earth, as it is 

 natural to suppose, delighting to be ploughed with a share 

 adorned with laurels, and by a ploughman who had been 

 honored with a triumph ? Or, was it because these men 

 ploughed their fields with the same diligence that they pitched 

 their camps, and secured their corn with the same care that 

 they formed their armies for battle?" This was intelligent, 

 careful and loving labor, and the ever grateful earth responded 

 by pouring forth her rich treasures into its lap. 



But I am not content with the general proposition that intel- 

 ligent is superior to unintelligent labor, true as it is. There is 

 at the present day, — most of it of recent origin, — what may be 



