Book II. ECONOMY OF AGRICULTURISTS. 1229 



would contribute much to the improvement of agriculture in the backward counties, if landed gentlemen 

 would prevail on their tenants to send their sons as appreiitices, or even as ploughmen or farm labourers, 

 to the improved counties ; or if lads brought up by the parish were sent there with a view to their 

 acquiring the use of the improved implements. 



7949. Whatever is the kind of professional knowledge to be acquired, the means of attainment is the 

 pupil's paying such attention to what he sees and hears as to fix it in his memory. One of the first things, 

 therefore, that a young man should do is to cultivate the faculty of attention, which he may do every 

 hour of the day, by first looking at an object and then shutting his eyes, and trying whether he recollects 

 its magnitude, form, colour, &c. ; whether he would know it when he saw it again, and by what special 

 mark or marks he would know it or describe it. When he goes from one part of the farm to another, or 

 is on a walk or journey, let him pay that degree of attention to every thing he sees and hears, which will 

 enable him to give some account of them when returned from his walk or journey; and let him try 

 next day, or some days afterwards, if he can recollect what he had seen then, or at any particular tirne 

 and place. 



7950. The attention to be exercised in suck a watj as to impress the memory, and enable the observer or 

 hearer, not only to recollect objects, but to describe them, must be exercised systematically. A thing or 

 a discourse must be attended to, not only as a whole, but as a composition of parts ; and these parts must 

 be considered not only as to their qualities of dimension, colour, consistency, &c., but as to their relative 

 situation and position. To be able to give an account of a town or village, for example, the first thing is 

 to get a general idea of the outline of its ground-plan, which may be done by looking from a church 

 tower or adjoining hill ; next, its relative situation to surrounding objects, as what hills, or woods, or 

 waters join it, and in what quarters ; next, the direction.of the leading street or streets must be noticed ; 

 then the intersecting or secondary streets, the principal public buildings, the principal private ones, where 

 the lowest houses and narrowest streets are sit ;ated, and what is the character of the greatest number of 

 houses composing the whole assemblage. 



7951. To treasure up in the mind the characteristic marks of particular varieties and subvarieties of stock 

 is a most important part of an agriculturist's professional education. To do this effectually, some know- 

 ledge of sketching is of great use, and, if possible, ought to be acquired by every person intending to fill 

 the situation of bailiff or steward. The knowledge of soils, plants, and their culture is a very simple 

 business compared with the knowledge of stock, which is not otily of difficult and tedious acquirement, 

 but easily forgotten or lost : for one gentleman's bailiff' that knows any thing of stock there are at least a 

 score that know nothing. 



7952. In connection with professional studies, the pupil may find it necessary, if his education has been 

 neglected, to go on at his leisure hours with all the usual branches of education, either assisted by books 

 alone, or by books and the best assistance he can procure. If his school education has extended to arith 

 metic, mensuration, mathematics, and drawing, he should occupy himself in acquiring a knowledge of 

 botany, zoology, geology, and mineralogy,' without a tolerable knowledge of each of which he will ever 

 be in the dark among modern agricultunsts, and in reading books on the subject. Next, let him study 

 the various arts and manufactures that have any relation to agriculture, and store his mind with all he 

 can acquire from one of the best general Encyclopcedias, as that of Rees, or the Encyclopwdia Britannica, 

 with its excellent supplementary volumes. , If he will go farther, and if he wishes to know the extent to 

 which he may go, he may consult what we have advanced on the subject of education in, the ^jc^c/t>/>f^rf?a 

 of Gardening, 



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Yti in ,ui'>Ji 



^uontnuj. tjjci jSmt. III. Condnictmid tEowibmy^ an Jgrimdturist s Life. '!?ftf.' noitij/nh . 



nm 'lit' .''I t'^-,:d- ' ' : .,,- _^.- ,,;. - , ^'^^^ i\,,..J.i> 



7953. A plmt for'fhe general conduct of life should be fixed on by every one when he arrives at man- 

 hood, and steadily pursued for the time to come : most commonly such a plan is forafied by the parents 

 soon after the child's birth, and, at the Latest, when the boy is taken from school. The boy arrived at 

 manhood, however, is entitled to examine this plan, and amend it, or devise another more congenial to his 

 own notions ; but the risk of any change of this sOrt by persons so young and inexperienced is so great, 

 that no youth ought to venture on it without the utmost consideration, and the firmest persuasion in his 

 own mind : where the parent has dbne his duty, such changes of plan will not often be attempted; for, by 

 the early infusion into the mind of a child of ideas relative to the pursuit that is intended for him, a 

 taste for that pursuit or employment will grow up with him, and become as it were his owh natural incline 

 ation. This will happen in most cases, but in some children the bias or force of nature for some parti- 

 cular purpose is so strong, that by no parental intreaties or reasoning can it be overcome ; even where a 

 sense of duty induced compliance with a parent's wishes for a time, the dormant inclination has at last 

 broke out and taken the lead. In such cases, the parent may generally conclude, that where the pursuit 

 or purpose is not bad, the fofce of natural inclination will be more likely to command success than the in- 

 fluence of larental authority ; and that a pursuit or business, commonly of little profit or repute, will be 

 more profitable and respectable when followed by a genius powerfully impelled to it, than a profitable and 

 reputable business followed by any one against his inclination. 



7954. The plan and conduct of life are in most cases determined by accidental circumstances. The spn : 

 of the labouring man grows up without any regular training or education for a particular end, and finds , 

 himself at the age of manhood engaged in rural labour, and apparently incapable of any other ; his notion*.; 

 and his ambition are so limited that he dare not venture to desire a change for the better ; for no matt, 

 ever desires that which he thinks it impossible to attain, and the mere idea of this impossibility, howeve)f,^ 

 erroneous, eflffectually restrains the attempt at improvement. The life of the ploughman or labourer, 

 much as it differs from that of a man of eminent natural powers and superior education, is capable of 

 much amelioration by being directed to a suitable end or object as the ultimatum, or in other w^ords, by 

 proceeding on a plan ; plan indeed, as we have elsewhere observed {Encyc. of Gard. 2d edit. 7778.), is 

 predestination, as conduct is fate. 



7955. The greater part of mankind enter on life without any fixed plan or object in view, or, if they have 

 some general notion of acquiring wealth or distinction, they form no plan by which it is to be accoraj;^ 

 plished ; the consequence is, that such persons, after blundering on through their best years, arrive at thrf"; 

 end without having gained any thing but experience, now of no use to them. No man is born in posses- . 

 sion of the art of living, any more than of the art of agriculture ; the one requires to be studied as well as 

 the other, and a man can no more expect permanent satisfaction from actions performed at random, than 

 he can expect a good crop from seeds sown without due regard to soil and season. When we look round 

 and observe the quantity of misery in the world, the greater proportion is, or seems to be, the result of a 

 want of plan, or of a bad plan of life. How many parents are unsuccessful in their struggles to maintain a 

 large family, the result of too early marriages : how many find themselves arrive at old age with no other .^ 

 resource for support but charity, the consequence of want of foresight in expenditure : how many ar^; 

 suffering under poverty, brought on by their own want of frugality, or positive extravagance; or undef. 

 disease from excesses and irregularities committed in the heyday of life : and how many among those not 

 born to inherit property, who, at no period of their life, have any other alternative between hard labour 

 and deficient food, than disease and want ! 



7956. Want of plan may not in every case be the cause of all this misery, because accident enters info 

 life for something, both on the unfavourable as well as the favourable side of the question : but we have 

 no hesitation in asserting, that want of plan, as a cause of misery, is as ninety-nine to a hundred : any 

 plan at all, even a bad plan, is better than none ; because those who set out on any plan will, in all proba- 

 bility, sooner discover its errors if a bad one, and correct them, than those who set out on no plan will 



