70 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



tions supplied them. Now we propose by an early education in 

 common schools, and behind the plough, continued when possi- 

 ble in academies and agricultural colleges, to educate, at least, 

 leaders enough to make the advance of agriculture a certain 

 thing, and fill \jp all the gaps which may be occasioned by heed- 

 lessness or disaster. 



But, say some others, we know all that can be learned of the 

 processes of agriculture already. We can raise good stock, cut 

 and store our hay and grain successfully, manure and hoe our 

 crops, and generally maintain our farms and ourselves profitably 

 and comfortably. Of course, those that know everything are 

 incapable of learning anything more. They remind me of an 

 incident on a recent trip of one of the Illinois river packets — a 

 light draught one, as there were only two feet of water in the 

 channel. The passengers were suddenly startled by the cry of 

 " man overboard." The steamer was stopped, and preparations 

 were made to save him, when he was heard exclaiming : " Go 

 ahead with your darned old steamboat, I'll walk behind you." 

 Now, if there are any here so smart that our steamboat is too 

 slow for them, we would respectfully recommend them to go 

 ahead and let us follow more slowly, and as Pat said of the har- 

 row, after the teeth fell out, we shall '■'•go a bit smoother with- 

 out them." 



There is another class of objectors who are continually ex- 

 claiming that farming don't pay ; that other kinds of work are 

 more agreeable ; and point to the wealthy merchant, the mil- 

 lionaire, banker and the railroad Croesus, as more worthy of 

 imitation. It would be a sufficient answer to these croakers to 

 say, that the necessity for farmers exists, and will always exist, 

 and that the work must be done by somebody, and must be 

 made to pay — must become agreeable by habit. I don't suppose 

 it is agreeable to the blacksmith, the machinist, the factory 

 operative, the effeminate clerk, the toilers in cities, on the vasty 

 deep, in mines, the myriads of workers above and below ground, 

 who follow their trades from dawn to twilight, to pursue their 

 various occupations so continuously, and get but the pittance of 

 their day's wages, and have in too many cases no house nor per- 

 manent home, and when they die leave their families to the 

 cold charities of the world. It certainly can't be agreeable to 

 the hard-working ministers all over the country " to be, to do 



