56 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



on the success with which they meet it. It is impossible to tell 

 how poor a farmer a man may be, and still find something to 

 do, and a little to live upon. 



What, therefore, farmers need are eyes, many eyes, intelligent 

 eyes, eyes out of which are looking thoughtful and experienced 

 men, to be directed toward them in continual scrutiny and crit- 

 icism. The best farmers are usually on the most travelled 

 roads, and in part because more persons see them. If every 

 time that a man ploughed his field or hoed his corn, one whose 

 judgment he thoroughly respected were looking at him over the 

 fence, much work would be improved without our scarcely 

 knowing why. I am never more aware of the defects of what 

 I do than when I review it with one whom I know understands 

 thoroughly how it should be done. I walk through my orchard 

 with an horticulturist, and feel more painfully than ever before 

 every neglect of which I have been guilty ; and this, not be- 

 cause he points them all out, but because, being with him, I 

 look sharply over my practice, as I suspect him to be doing. 



Many men are tough, and farmers not the least so ; they 

 should therefore be often pricked with criticism, made uneasy 

 in their faults by close observation, looked over in their doings 

 in a straightforward, common-sense way ; and as they have no 

 one to do this work for them, they cannot do better than to get 

 together and do it for each other. Every good method is thus 

 made contagious, every sound principle catching, and tasteful 

 and thorough farming becomes an epidemic. It is not good for 

 men to be alone ; above all, one that is a little dull. The wise 

 heads are put in the world as leaven, and the large assemblages 

 of the agricultural fairs give their ideas an opportunity to fer- 

 ment and propagate. It is good to touch the hem of a man's 

 garment that knows more than we do, and one is likely to find 

 them on these occasions set apart to ideas. 



This leads us to the second advantage of the fair. Farmers 

 do not simply look at each other, and their respective cattle and 

 produce ; there is provision made for their definite instruction 

 in various ways. The best tools and machinery of the farm are 

 exhibited, and, so far as practicable, operated. One is able to 

 decide on the merits of an instrument before the purchase, and 

 is stimulated to the right purchase by the opinions of those on 

 whose experience and judgment he can rely. The best qualified 



