636 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



serving the worst for that purpose ; or do they sell all that is 

 fit to be sold, and keep the poorest for home use and for seed? 

 This gradual improvement of seed, such as Mr. Brown, on an 

 island in Lake Winnepcsaukee, has made in corn — known as 

 Brown Corn — and as many others have made in many plants, 

 and fruits, and flowers, by the simple selection of seed, with 

 judicious cultivation, — this smacks rather too much of science 

 for a practical farmer. 



Gentlemen, I have endeavored to commend to you agricul- 

 tural education, — the fitting of a farmer for the successful pur- 

 suit of his noble profession, — precisely on the principle that a 

 lawyer, a doctor, a shipwright, or a true sailor is fitted for the 

 duties of his position. But it is replied to me that the men of 

 this generation are too old to go to school again. This is an 

 eiTor, for a wise man is at school all his days. Or if allowed 

 to be true, you can yet educate your children who are to be 

 farmers, as farmers. While their minds are plastic to receive 

 impressions, and free from the prejudices which years strength- 

 en upon us, let them drink at the fountain of knowledge ; that, 

 when the icy hand of death has snatched us from the scene of 

 our labors, they may fill, and more than fill, the places that 

 will " know us no more forever." That they may commence, 

 not at the lowest round of the ladder, where we began to 

 climb ; but may mount from the height where our grasp is 

 fixed, when we are suddenly summoned to another life. 



Educate your children, and you will rear up benefactors of 

 mankind. The advantages of education in every pursuit, and 

 for all the purposes of life, is no new theme to a New England 

 audience. Why, why do men listen with incredulous ears, 

 when we commend to them the proper education of a farmer ? 

 Imagine for a moment, that all the scientific, practical ability, 

 that is now employed in watching the currents of the air and 

 the currents of the ocean, the courses of ■the tides and the 

 courses of the stars, and sounding for shoals and sounding for 

 soundings, and dividing the heavens, the earth and the sea into 

 squares, — was engaged in studying the secrets of the earth's 

 fertility, and in improving our implements of husbandry, — do 

 you believe that, in such case, many years would elapse ere 

 we could grow two blades of grass where springs but one now ? 

 Do you believe that we should toil and sweat at our labors 



