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labors, — no harassing disappointments ? Has not the 

 intelUgcnt farmer the same advantage over the unin- 

 telhgent as the intelHgent manufacturer, merchant or 

 mechanic over an ignorant competitor ? Has he no 

 need of shrewdness, — no need of knowledge so useful 

 to others ? The nature and succession of crops, modes 

 of culture, methods of increasing the productiveness 

 of the earth, — what is adapted to this situation and 

 soil, and what to that, — climate, the markets, — has 

 intelligence, calculation, knowledge nothing to do with 

 these ? It has much, I should think. He who avails 

 himself of the latest lights, discoveries and improve- 

 ments, is in a better condition to succeed than one 

 who is ignorant of them. What a difference in travel 

 between the old lumbering method of stage-coaching 

 and the present railway speed, comfort and ease ! Is 

 there not a similar difference in other things between 

 the old and the new ? To maintain his relative posi- 

 tion and succeed, a man, in these days, must know. 

 The farmer must know. It has been said that now 

 " bayonets think." So we may say, the hoe and the 

 spade must think. Labor must know. 



In some particulars, the old Roman agriculture has 

 not been surpassed, if it has been equalled, by any 

 efforts of modern times ; and the reason assigned is, 

 " because the greatest and wisest men among the 

 Romans applied themselves to the study and practice 

 of it." Pliny, alluding to the abundance of corn in 

 Rome in ancient times, asks, " What was the cause of 

 this fruitfulness ? Was it because, in those times, the 

 lands were cultivated by the hands even of generals ; 

 the earth, as it is natural to suppose, delighting to be 

 ploughed with a share adorned with laurels, and by a 

 ploughman who had been honored with a triumph ? 

 Or, was it because these men ploughed their fields with 



