MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 773 



Giving is emphatically the order there. The club organized, 

 the first act is introduced by sonne member, giving to his fel- 

 lows the results of his reading, his thinking, and his experi- 

 ments on the soil best adapted to the different varieties of po- 

 tatoes; on the breed of cattle best suited to the purpose of 

 him whose business it is to furnish butter for the market, or on 

 whatever subject the club have selected for the evening's dis- 

 cussion. He now turns his own eye to the strange reservoir 

 from which he has been drawing. It has given all it had. 

 Yet, when it is examined, it is found fuller than before ; and 

 what most surprises him, is the clearness of the water. Ob- 

 jects, which before seemed dim and indistinct, now show their 

 minuter parts. Were you to call upon him to draw again 

 from that same fountain, it would give you a clearer, purer 

 draught. But the giving has enlarged the capacity for receiv- 

 ing. When his neighbor comes, in turn, to speak of his ex- 

 periments and their results, he sees more clearly the points of 

 agreement, and investigates more closely the causes which 

 have led to different results. The whole process is most 

 strictly an educating process. Thought draws out thought : 

 mind acts upon mind. No matter if there is a little friction, 

 raising, in a slight degree, the temperature. Every chemist 

 knows that in his laboratory this is often necessary to the per- 

 fect success of many experiments. 



The temptation for the farmer to eat the first fruits of his 

 labor, and sit down in comparative inactivity, needs the excite- 

 ment a farmers' club is well calculated to give. It arouses the 

 mind, stimulates inquiry, and breaks up that routine of thought 

 and conversation which six evenings in the week, in the lan- 

 guage of a school-teacher who boarded around the district, 

 " begins with grandfather's cows, and ends with the feats which 

 father's horses used to perform." But where a well-regulated 

 farmers' club exists, the most stereotype mind will be moved. 

 The opinions of others will be noticed, thought about and 

 talked about, perhaps at first only in ridicule, but even this is 

 almost infinitely better than that lethargic state, which makes 

 the Russian serf a serf, and the millions of France the willing 

 subjects of the power of mind. 



The farmers' club is a labor-saving machine, operating on 



