650 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



INTELLIGENT AGRICULTURE. 



[Extracts from an Address delivered at the last Exhibition of the Barnstable 

 Agricultural Society. By Simon Brown, Esq., Editor of the New England 

 Farmer.] 



Recent discoveries in chemistry and physiology have led to 

 most important improvements in the culture of plants, and the 

 breeding and rearing of animals ; agriculture, is, in conse- 

 quence, no longer an art of labor, but of science; hence the 

 advantage of scientific knowledge to agriculturists, and the 

 susceptibility in the art of progressive advancement. "Agri- 

 culture," Marshall says, " is a subject which, viewed in all its 

 branches, and to their fullest extent, is not only the most im- 

 portant, and the most difficult in rural economies, but in the 

 circle of human arts and sciences." 



Such is the importance of agriculture to us all. It cannot 

 lack dignity, for it is the mother of all other arts and sciences. 

 It was not too low for Cato, Cincinnatus, and Washington ; 

 and it never can be too low for the most exalted mind on earth. 



Discontent, then, does not spring from a want of importance 

 and dignity in the occupation, but because that occupation is 

 not understood. Farming should not be looked upon as the 

 end of life, merely as a means of subsistence ; this, as well as 

 all other pursuits, should be adopted with the view of enabling 

 men not only to improve and beautify the earth, but to culti- 

 vate the moral, intellectual, and social powers, and to fill, 

 according to their capacity, their proper station among their 

 fellow men. It should not tend to make men mere machines, 

 who toil for the sole purpose of gratifying their appetites ; but 

 it should elevate and refine, to the highest degree of perfection, 

 the better faculties of our nature. 



The profits of productive farming would, when conducted 

 scientifically, enable the farmer to accumulate wealth, and 

 enjoy all the comforts and luxuries of refined life. Every 

 community could be made up of the best society — every 

 family could have a good library, and its accomplished sons 



