engaged in cutting and curing hay, how to harvest this impor- 

 tant crop, when I meet, daily, loads of their hay bound to a 

 neighboring market, whose fragrance charms the traveller on 

 our highways, and whose quality stands approved, both by 

 judicious purchasers and hungry animals. Why should I try 

 to teach you the best time to sow grass seed, and to plant po- 

 tatoes, and sow your grain, and harvest your mangolds and 

 swedes, and the best way to apply manure, when your own ex- 

 perience has taught you all this, long ago? Questions like 

 these I am willing to refer to an intelligent body of farmers? 

 who have generally exercised good judgment in the manage- 

 ment of their business ; and to realize that they already know 

 that plan of farming best suited to the land they cultivate. I 

 am aware that the farmer cannot afford to devote season after 

 season to trying experiments suggested by some restless theo- 

 rist, or by some ambitious teacher, who thinks all change is 

 progress, and that no law can be learned by practice, and who 

 feels that he must say something to earn his salary. I am also 

 aware that a well-devised, definite, prosperous plan is of the 

 highest importance to him who proposes to live by tilling the 

 soil ; and I have noticed that he who simplifies this plan most 

 readily and pursues it most steadily, undiverted by promises 

 and unconfused by theories, never captivated and misled by the 

 idea that there is a short and easy road to successful farming, 

 more than there is to great learning, is the one who arrives at 

 the prosperity we all desire. I am quite unwilling to discuss 

 practical questions merely for the sake of discussion — knowing 

 well that while I stand still to debate, the weeds will grow 

 apace. 



And so referring the anxious student of agriculture to the 

 successful corn-growers, and grass-growers, and grain-growers, 



