8 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



But is it too much to expect that what George Peabody has 

 done for liis native town, others may do iu some other way for 

 theirs, and that an enhghtcned agriculture may lay the founda- 

 tion of a similar rural fortune to the village where it is 

 pursued ? 



If agriculture as a science is to become the great national 

 enterprise of a free people, can we who encourage and foster it 

 by agricultural fairs, exhibitions of stock and produce, by our 

 libraries and premiums, do too much in our means of primary 

 education to advance it? Set out well and carefully the young 

 tree, and you need not fear that under ordinary circumstances, 

 you will be disappointed in the fruits. Elevate your calling, 

 gentlemen, and you open avenues of usefulness and wealth, 

 surer and as honorable as commerce or mercantile pursuits. 

 The science, which prompts your labors and which induces 

 your children to love the old homestead so well that they will 

 not leave it for the uncertain gain of other trades, will not nec- 

 essarily involve you in expensive habits or ruinous enterprises. 

 The reason why we see such is not from the science, but from 

 its want. In all pursuits there is necessarily much pretence, 

 yet that does not prevent the pursuit of the real and substan- 

 tial. True science is accurate, patient and rewarding ; empiri- 

 cism is pretentious and false. Every evil has its remedy, and 

 if not in our generation yet in one to come, and for which we 

 should labor in our day, will be enlisted in your noble calling 

 the very highest and surest names in those departments of 

 knowledge and inquiry, which are connected with the cultiva- 

 tion of the earth. 



I suggested, in the early part of my remarks, that the eye 

 was through the hand, the great minister to the supply of use- 

 ful knowledge and practical wisdom. Clearly then, it was 

 intended in such a beneficent gift, that we were expected to 

 observe. This duty of seeing, of observing, devolves upon the 

 farmer in the most minute particulars of his calling. How 

 quick your eye detects the symptoms of disease in your stock; 

 and how much is done by practice. Deficiency of points in 

 your hoi-se you will notice, which might escape others. The 

 same holds good in the minutia? of your crops, and the most 

 careful criticism is worthy your care. On such observation, 

 constant, daily, perpetual, the most ordinary and the most 



