MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 765 



and finds again the genial warmth on ascending the hill. 

 And when around the fireside, daughters may state the princi- 

 ple upon which the smoke ascends the chimney, and why the 

 air is warmest at the top of the room ; or why the " pitcher 

 sweats," as it is called, filled with cold water, in the hot noon, 

 or the " dough rises " in the pan ; for it is as important that 

 the young maiden shall be rightly taught as the young man. 



Every opportunity must be improved to press upon the 

 mind the wonderful operation of the laws about him. These 

 will form topics of contemplation while guiding the plough, or 

 cradling the grain, and so fill the mind with the beneficence 

 and beauty with which Infinite Wisdom has encircled him, as 

 to free farm-work from all semblance of drudgery, and the 

 mind from all tendencies to discontent. 



With such kindly intercourse, the teacher and the taught 

 will store up information that will be practical and useful in 

 the future operations of the farm. But this is not all that will 

 be gained. Going back to first principles, and understanding 

 something of the wonderful mechanism of his animals and 

 plants, fills his mind with intimate and delightful associations 

 existing in the relations of his occupation. He not only 

 studies the frame-work of his domestic animals, and the form- 

 ation of his plants, but the lesser animals that seek their living 

 on his domains. 



If the birds of the air are cared for, although they " neither 

 sow nor reap," and "neither have storehouse nor barn," he 

 will find them worthy of his study, and in this exercise increase 

 his own happiness and ability to manage his affairs. He will 

 investigate, even though it be but slightly, everything that has 

 a direct bearing upon the profession in which he is engaged. 

 The insects, varieties of stock, soils, atmospheric changes and 

 influences, the seasons, and growth and nature of plants, bud- 

 ding, grafting, transplanting, and hybridizing, will all receive 

 attention, and a partial knowledge of them will be easily 

 acquired through the intellectual foundation which has been 

 so carefully laid. But there is still another point, utterly 

 neglected, if even ever thought of, in the education of the young' 

 farmer. 



No one would trust his interests in a suit at law with an 



