AGRICULTURE OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



EDUCATION OF FARMERS' SONS, 



From an Address before the Essex Agricultural Society. 



BY ALFRED A. ABBOTT. 



How should farmers' sons be educated — how should the 

 rising generation of farmers be reared ? 



In order to insure success in any department of life or labor, 

 there must be the previous suitable preparation and training. 

 If a lad is intended for one of the professions, so-called, he 

 starts with that understanding. There is from the outset 

 method and system. He is put to those exercises which it is 

 believed will best discipline his mind for the peculiar labors he 

 is to perform. All those means and appliances are brought to 

 bear which can aid in developing the faculties and powers upon 

 which hereafter he must mainly rely. The whole field of his 

 future is brought and kept before him, so that all through his 

 preparatory course he can have in view the goal for which he 

 has set out. And if, after all, he fails, as many do, (for it is 

 hardly necessary to say that there are incapable lawyers, 

 unskilful physicians and inefficient ministers, as well as thrift- 

 less farmers,) the fault is in himself, and not in the system. 

 So, if a boy is intended for mercantile life or some mechanical 

 pursuit, he is trained for that life or pursuit, and his training 

 begins with the knowledge on his part that he has entered upon 

 what is to be his future, permanent occupation — that he has 

 embarked upon the voyage of life, and as he steers his course 

 and trims his sails, so will come success or failure. Henceforth 



