4 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



of want, by a skilful devotion to its onion crop. Have the 

 farmers of that town no claims to be considered capable pro- 

 fessors in the school of agriculture ? I have known an old 

 orchard not far from us, to be brought from a state of almost 

 hopeless decay and barrenness, to the most abundant bearing, 

 by patient and continued cultivation. Is not this actual fact, 

 established here in our own borders, a lesson which every 

 farmer in this county can learn, and by which he can profit ? 

 I have admired from my childhood the fruitful fields, and the 

 agricultural system of an ample farm in one of your towns, 

 and have learned from it that there is in our own population, 

 a capacity for farming which is surpassed in no section of our 

 country. I have thought a better agricultural school than this 

 farm could not be found. I have before me also, that most 

 valuable of all citizens, one of what are called the yeomanry 

 of our country. A farmer, born and educated to his calling, 

 and filled with determination to discharge his duty well. The 

 virtues of a New England home gave tone and direction to his 

 earliest impulses. The sharp and bracing air of his native 

 hills nerved his arm, and knit his manly frame into that sturdy 

 symmetry which his destiny demands. Amidst the conflicts 

 and trials, amidst the joys and sports of the district school, he 

 laid the foundation of his knowledge, without advancing into 

 that realm of letters which is beset with the snares of ambi- 

 tion, and is surrounded by all the temptations which the high 

 mountains of society are sure to reveal. The great book of 

 nature lies always open before him, and the relation which 

 exists between the earth and its cultivator is the first lesson 

 he learns from its pages. The capacity of his native soil 

 becomes as familiar to his growing eye as the careworn form 

 of his industrious father, from whom he learns year by year the 

 practical business of agriculture. Among the animals of the 

 farm he walks supreme and applies an \inerring instinct to his 

 estimate of their quality, and to the work of rendering them 

 obedient to his will. He learns not only the art of tilling the 

 earth, but the demands of the community in which he lives ; 

 and as he advances to that position which he is born to fill, he 

 finds that the experience of his fathers, and the recorded trials 

 of his neighbors constitute that science which he is most eager 

 to learn. As he goes on in life, a busy world responds to his 



