8 



ity, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy 

 lucre : but patient, not a brawler, not covetous : one that 

 ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjec- 

 tion with all gravity."* 



He is intelligent; he reads: he thinks: and if some- 

 times he reads less he thinks and observes the more. He 

 is intelligent enough to investigate — if not with the ac- 

 curacy and thoroughness of the scientific man, yet with 

 the sound, common sense of the practical man — new 

 theories and new suggestions connected with farm and 

 garden, and to accept and use every new discovery of 

 science, so far as applicable or useful in his calling. He 

 does not trouble himself much, perhaps, with philosophi- 

 cal speculations, and Darwin and Herbert Spencer may 

 not be as familiar to him as Professor Goessman's reports 

 from the experiment station at the Agricultural College, 

 the Reports of the State Board, the "Massachusetts 

 Ploughman and the New England Farmer. He may not 

 .give much attention to the various theories of evolution, 

 but he does believe in heredity, that "blood will tell," 

 and in "the survival of the fittest:'* and if the fittest 

 will not survive without help he will make it survive. 

 He believes in making the fittest calf and colt, the fittest 

 plant and vegetable and fruit survive, and with almost 

 Spartan indifference and coolness he will get rid of all 

 inferior and defective animals and plants and fruits. 



He believes in agriculture as a science and as an art. 

 With the science he does not claim to be familiar, but he 

 will not presume to rail against scientific deductions and 

 teachings — against the facts of science — but will test 

 them by his own good sense, by careful observation and 

 experience, and by a practical, actual application. He 

 believes in availing himself, as far as possible, of every 



