DUTIES OF AN AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 5 



inquiries. The agricultural societies, which, in the best farm- 

 ing countries in the old world and the new, are founded for 

 the benefit of all men like himself, pour forth their treasures at 

 his feet. Subjected to his treatment, his ancestral acres unfold 

 new riches at his hands, and he becomes, as he goes on in 

 life, the impersonation of successful, economical, progressive 

 agriculture. Will not this man, as a member of our society, 

 serve as a teacher of the best truths of agricultural science ? 



In estimating as I do, the value of the farmer as a teacher of 

 agriculture, both in his private capacity and as an active member 

 of a society, I would not be understood as opposed to agricul- 

 tural schools and colleges. There is no royal road to learning, 

 in any of its branches. I have no doubt that a thorough agri- 

 cultural education would s.ave much misapplied time and labor 

 and capital. I have no doubt that it would accelerate the pro- 

 gress of agriculture. I can easily imagine the effect it would 

 have upon the farming interests of our own county, not only by 

 the universal influence it would exercise, but by the stimulus 

 it would give the leading and prominent members of the pro- 

 fession. It would make the good farmers better, and the poor 

 ones good. And I can easily understand the advantages which 

 those practical teachers of agriculture whom I have designated, 

 might have derived from a thorough knowledge of the general 

 principles taught in schools, not only by means of the actual 

 acquirements and the increased wisdom given by culture, but 

 also by means of that freedom from prejudice and that liberal 

 spirit of inquiry and progress which lie at the foundation of all 

 true success, and have enriched and elevated mankind by the 

 patient toils of invention, and by the brilliant and startling 

 achievements of discovery, and which education alone can give. 



But then, gentlemen, comes the immense power of example. 

 Why, I can take you to sections of your own county, where 

 the quiet and unobtrusive efforts of a sagacious, industrious, 

 prudent farmer have operated like contagion upon all about 

 him, until he has become one of a community of thriving far- 

 mers. His well cultivated and fruitful fields, his carefully 

 pruned orchards laden with fruit, his thrifty and profitable cat- 

 tle, his well ordered buildings, his walls and fences a protec- 

 tion to his lands, all lie like an open book before his neighbors, 

 so that " he who runs may read." His farm is a treatise on 



