430 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



greater weakness in this case than they did by suffering them- 

 selves to be imposed upon by a mere charlatan at the outset. 



The " application of knowledge derived from experience " is 

 as essential to the agricultor as to the lawyer, the physician, 

 the clergyman, the statesman, or those engaged in any other 

 vocation where these elements are considered requisite and 

 necessary to prosperity and success. Knowledge derived from 

 tradition, it will be admitted, has had, and is still having, too 

 much influence in most of the arts and professions. Do not 

 eschew knowledge because it comes to you through the medium 

 of tradition, neither receive it because it claims experience as 

 its indorserj for, in either case, you may be deceived. The 

 Baconian, or inductive system, as it is popularly denominated, 

 is almost as fruitful of imposture, as now held and practised, as 

 the old system of philosophy which it supplanted. The rapid 

 generalizations and hasty conclusions denominated "knowledge 

 derived from experience " constitute one of the great evils of 

 the present age ; and no vocation or profession, perhaps, is 

 more infested with pseudodoxical experimentists, or self-styled 

 inductive teachers, than that of husbandry. 



Agriculture as an art has always been found in the highest 

 state of perfection where the greatest advancement in civiliza- 

 tion and enlightenment have been made. In tracing the history 

 of civilization in connection with agriculture, it is found to 

 consist of four distinct periods — viz., that of the hunter, the 

 shepherd, the farmer, and the gardener. Hunting, in the first 

 period, was practised for the purpose of procuring the means 

 of subsistence. The comforts, and pleasures, and luxuries of 

 life are almost unknown in this state of society. Caves and 

 caverns, in northern latitudes, are to the people as houses, to 

 protect them from the inclemency of the weather and the pclt- 

 ings of the storm. Lot dwelt in a cave — he and his daughters. 

 From the savage life to that of the shepherd, or pastoral, the 

 benefits or advantages over the former are of a positive kind. 

 A home, a more certain subsistence, and more leisure for intel- 

 lectual pursuits are enjoyed. The life of the shepherd is less 

 the life of a wanderer than that of the savage, ami, without 

 mental culture, tends to indolence. The prescriptive right of 

 the shepherd tended to bring about the permanent division of 



