T4 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



designate beforehand some subject for discussion, and appoint 

 some one or more persons who are expected specially to prepare 

 themselves to enlighten us on the designated topic, and after- 

 wards all the members present are called upon to contribute 

 their quota of information. In speaking we seldom rise from 

 our chairs, and feel the same freedom that we do by our family 

 fireside. The result has been increased knowledge ; and with 

 the increased knowledge came increased crops, improved stock 

 and greater thrift. Our club has numbered about twenty, and 

 if two heads are wiser than one, much more must the assembled 

 wisdom of twenty men be greater than that of the individual. 

 The practice of this public speaking makes us more accurate 

 observers and thinkers, and this comparing of experience takes 

 the kinks out of those wise merely in their own conceit. The 

 farmer's club does not cover so much ground as the agricultural 

 society, but it cultivates the ground it does cover more thor- 

 oughly, inasmuch as it awakens more thought, and thought lies 

 at the base of good farming. It may be added, in favor of this 

 public speaking, that it is not like music, painting and poetry, 

 in which mediocrity is laughed at and only excellence is praised. 

 Any degree of skill in public speaking is desirable, and the art 

 is just as attainable by farmers as by other folks. There is no 

 power that man wields over his fellow-men like that of the 

 orator ; and if we are not fitted to instruct and guide a senate 

 as was Daniel Webster, it is certainly desirable and possible that 

 we should edify a club and " speak in meeting." 



Analogous to public speaking, in its effects on the mind, is 

 the art of communicating our thoughts by writing. In writing 

 our ideas we are apt to be more accurate even than in speaking 

 them, and this accuracy involves digestion and arrangement. 

 It must be confessed that farmers, as a class, are deficient in this 

 art. In handling the hoe and plough the fingers become a little 

 rigid, and the use of the pen becomes a burden, and in some 

 instances, we fear, is dropped altogether. This is neglecting 

 one great means of mental discipline and public usefulness. 

 Next to the power of a fluent tongue comes that of a nimble 

 pen. The press is becoming more and more the fourth estate. 

 I remember hearing in my youth the question debated, " Which 

 has the more influence, the press or the pulpit ? " It may bo 

 difficult to compare the two and decide this question ; but tlie 



