80 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



labor to the soil for special crops, provided for a local market, 

 the selection of animals adapted to the land on which they are 

 to be fed, and an effectual and inexpensive war upon the destroy- 

 ing insect tribes, that occupy the attention of the successful 

 farmer of our day. Add to these the cost of labor and the 

 expenses of subsistence, and you can easily understand that 

 his work is by no means easy. 



To enable the farmer to meet and overcome these obstacles, 

 we appeal now to science and invention. Agricultural educa- 

 tion has become one of the most important questions of our day 

 — how it shall be conducted, and in what it shall consist. An 

 accurate knowledge of the best systems of husbandry, an under- 

 standing of the structure, habits, health and diseases of animals, 

 a capacity to analyze and apply manures, skill in the manipula- 

 tion of soils, an intelligent comprehension of what lands to drain, 

 and what to avoid, are deemed now to be the object of an agri- 

 cultural education, and indispensable to successful agriculture. 

 The plastic, receptive, and inquiring mind also, which is created, 

 or should be, by careful mental culture, the mind ready to give 

 and receive, quick to forget all prejudices, and throw over all 

 unfounded notions, has a great work to perform in elevating ag- 

 riculture to its proper standard, as a useful and profitable em- 

 ployment. Industrious, ingenious and open-minded farmers are 

 what the times demand, and what societies and clubs and col- 

 leges create. 



To enlighten the agricultural mind, therefore, and strengthen 

 the agricultural hand, we appeal to our educators and inventors 

 — and we do not appeal in vain. The zeal with which agricul- 

 tural investigation is pursued, and the increasing desire for 

 knowledge manifested everywhere, indicate not only a thorough 

 understanding of the magnitude of the conflict, but a determi- 

 nation also to be victorious in the strife. And this incessant 

 and untiring invention of machinery — what does it all mean, 

 but that the old weapons are unfit for the toil, and have become 

 powerless amidst the difficulties and trials of the present age. 

 As it is, the ingenuity of man exhausts itself for us. The wheel, 

 the pully, the lever, centrifugal and centripetal forces, every 

 corner and angle are brought into the construction of machin- 

 ery to aid us in subduing a hard and obdurate soil, and in gath- 

 ering in our crops. In nothing is the profound interest of man 



