10 ADDRESS. 



of land to cultivate on their own account, with all they can realize 

 above cost and expenses. Give them a premium when they de- 

 serve it, but make them sell their own products in market. Give 

 your daughters plots of ground for flower beds, in the same way, 

 drive them, at least two hours in a day, from the stinted atmos- 

 phere of the house and piano, to open air and light, to digging in 

 mother earth, developing thereby the future mothers of our race. 

 Introduce the most improved implements of husbandry, on the 

 farm and in the house. Do not wait — lead your neighbors if 

 possible. 



Improve your stock; don't keep a poor animal of any kind. 

 Grow roots, fruits, grains most productive and nutritious. I raise 

 upon two acres in Fitchburg ahnost enough to support a small family 

 Let us grow such crops as will pay best, or, at least, have the best 

 probability of a good return. If you make your farms attractive 

 to men of education, of refined taste and manner, by flower gar- 

 dens, fruit and shade trees, you give to your family a standard for 

 mental culture. The want of education is so plainly written that 

 the most stupid cannot fail to perceive it, and without it the birds 

 of the air and the beasts of the fields are our superiors. 



The farmer should look upon his occupation as a profession, 

 fully equal to Divinity, Law or Medicine. It is in fact superior. 

 They cannot live without him ; but he can live without them. 



Let his sons, who are to have his old homestead, (for with 

 scientific culture there will probably be enough for all) that dear 

 spot, filled with shrines the heart hath builded, not only represent 

 the intelligence and refinement of the present generation, but the 

 simple manners, homely virtues, pious trust, and warm hearted 

 hospitality that characterized his ancestry. With a practical 

 education, let him be a good chemist, and he is sure to be a good 

 farmer. 



Although I have attained the limit which I prescribed for my- 

 self in this address, I must crave your indulgence to say a word 

 about English and Belgian agriculture. Belgium with only 11,373 

 square miles, yet sustains a population of 5,000,000, and is made 

 by the hand of labor a garden. In my two visits there, the past 

 year, I was unable to see what possible advantages it had over 

 Massachusetts, save a little larger territory and beds of coal — in 

 fact in the broken character and face of the country and its soil, as 

 in England, especially in the county of Kent, with the same cultiva- 

 tion, I could almost imagine myself at home — as England and 

 Belgium are confessedly so similar in soil and climate. I will 



