92 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



college, rests mainly upon the public belief in its importance, 

 its possibility and its necessity. It is easy on a professional 

 holiday to believe in the respectability of agriculture ; but is it 

 a living sentiment, controlling your conduct and inspiring you 

 with courage and faith in your daily labor ? Does it lead you 

 to contemplate with satisfaction the prospect that your son is to 

 be a farmer also, and that your daughter is to be a farmer's 

 wife ? These, I imagine, are test questions which not all 

 farmers nor farmers' wives can answer in the affirmative. Else, 

 why the custom among farmers' sons, of making their escape, 

 at the earliest moment possible, from the labors and restraints 

 of the farm ? Else why the disposition of the farmer's daugh- 

 ter to accept other situations, not more honorable, and in the 

 end not usually more profitable, than the place of household 

 aid to the business of the home ? How then can a system of 

 education be prosperous and efficient, when those for whom it 

 is designed neither respect their calling nor desire to pursue it ? 

 You will not, of course, imagine that I refer, in these state- 

 ments, to all farmers ; there are many exceptions ; but my own 

 experience and observation lead me to place confidence in the 

 fitness of these remarks, speaking generally of the farmers of 

 New England. It is, however, true, and the statement of the 

 truth ought not to be omitted, that the prevalent ideas among 

 us are much in advance of what they were ten years ago. Iii 

 what has been accomplished we have ground for hope, and even 

 security for further advancement. 



I look, then, first and chiefly to an improved home culture, 

 as the necessary basis of a system of agricultural education. 

 Christian education, culture and life depend essentially upon 

 the influences of home, and we feel continually the importance 

 of kindred influences upon our common school system. 



It will not, of course, be wise to wait in the establishment 

 of a system of agricultural education until we are satisfied 

 that every farmer is prepared for it ; in the beginning suffi- 

 cient support may be derived from a small number of persons ; 

 but in the end it must be sustained by the mass of those 

 interested. Other pursuits and professions must meet the 

 special claims made upon them, and in the matter of agricultu- 

 ral education, they cannot be expected to do more than assent 

 to what the farmers themselves may require. 



