SCIENCE LIBERALIZES THE MIND. 185 



of farming. It seems to me that is one of the most practical 

 and most useful points in which that college can serve the cause 

 of agriculture in Massachusetts. 



Now, for this purpose, we have bound, (I say " we," because, 

 little as I have had to do in an official way with this college, I 

 am grateful that I have had the power given me to do it some 

 good,) we have bound every farmer in this Commonwealth, di- 

 rectly or indirectly, with that institution. The Board of Agri- 

 culture, which represents the agricultural industry of this 

 Commonwealth, is constituted by law a board of overseers 

 there. Every farmer who is a member of this Board represents 

 a certain section of farmers, and knows, or ought to know, what 

 the local interests which he represents are. He is intimately 

 acquainted with the farmers who send him there, and so it is 

 that that college to-day is brought into immediate and intimate 

 relations with all the practical farmers in this Commonwealth. 

 So, if you have raised a good crop, let them know it there. If 

 you can give them any information, carry it there ; and be sure 

 that, in the long run, when the information which you have 

 carried there has been tested, it will come back to you as a rich 

 legacy from that institution which you are bound and proud to 

 support. It is in that way that the farmers of the Common- 

 wealth are bound to the college ; and I assure you, my friends, 

 that there is no man engaged in the cultivation of fruit, no 

 man engaged in the production of grass or corn or grain or 

 cattle, in this State, who, if he will only believe in the Agricul- 

 tural College, may not draw information from it which will 

 enable him to carry on these branches of business to greater 

 profit than he has heretofore done. 



But you may tell me that science does not lay down any law ; 

 that a man can demonstrate the anatomy of the cow, or tell you 

 how a fish is hatched, which fin grows first, and what his tail 

 looks like ; but that does you no good. But it does. In the 

 first place, it liberalizes your mind — one of the best things that 

 can be done for you. There is nothing in the world like keep- 

 ing a man's mind open, receptive ; the instant it closes up, there 

 is an end of him. Keep his mind open, free, liberal, ready to 

 investigate, ready to listen, and if he will only believe in careful 

 investigation, it will open a way by which he can overcome all 

 his obstacles and difficulties. It will teach him what lands to 



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