126 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



The knowledge imparted by a system of agricultural education, 

 receives its highest value from that branch of the work which 

 is based on actual labor. The merchant learns his business in 

 the counting-room, the lawyer in his,office, the physician in his 

 practice, the farmer in his field ; and while we welcome every 

 ray of liglit which science throws upon our calling, we would 

 most earnestly urge the practical agriculturist to preserve for 

 the benefit of mankind, the observations which he naturally 

 makes in his daily toil. We need an agricultural literature like 

 this, not loosely prepared, but arranged with intelligence and 

 care, and based upon a proper application of science to the 

 business of life. 



We would suggest to our farmers, that every opinion obsti- 

 nately persisted in may not be valuable, and that an experiment 

 may not be useful, even if months were employed in making it. 

 No business requires so intimate an acquaintance with what is 

 past, and so ready an acceptance of what is to come, as farming ; 

 for in none are there such opportunities for that progress, 

 which, to be well made, must be based upon the failures and 

 successes of those who have preceded us. Columbus undoubt- 

 edly caught the idea of a new hemisphere from the half-formed 

 theories contained in musty ancestral manuscripts ; and many 

 a crude experiment, long since forgotten because never properly 

 made, may suggest an opening to an entire new world of rich 

 and valuable knowledge in agriculture. In the use of labor, in 

 the management of the land, in the application of manures, 

 therefore, and in all that goes to make up a sound agricultural 

 education, knowledge is indeed power, and wealth also ; and 

 we mean by knowledge tliat kind of information "svliich belongs 

 especially to a good farmer. Farming is no hap-hazard occupa- 

 tion. There are indeed certain elements upon which it depends, 

 which are beyond man's control, and which he can only watch 

 and obey to the best of his ability. But wliile the seasons are 

 uncertain, while the sun is capricious and the " wind bloweth 

 where it listeth," the ingenuity of man is more especially called 

 upon to give exactness and certainty to the whole business of 

 agriculture. Burke says : " I have been a farmer for twenty- 

 seven years, and it is a trade the most precarious in its advan- 

 tages, the most liable to losses, and the least profitable of any 

 that is carried on. It requires ten times more of labor, of vigi- 



