82 T K A X S A C T I N S . 



And not only will education give this class increasing political in- 

 jluence, but their influence will be increasingly felt, in all social in- 

 terests. In any public improrenient, this class have always been the 

 last to be moved, the slowest to appreciate progress, in any thing, 

 and the most reluctant to change. The man who finds little use for 

 his mind, in the prosecution of his own business cannot be expected 

 to apprecicte the need of education for any other calling. If reading, 

 writing, and ciphering, are the whole catalogue of studies that he has 

 pursued, and these fit him for the use of the hoe and the plow, why 

 should the merchant, mechanic, or any other man need any thing 

 more ? "Why should we have schools, that give any higher intellect- 

 ual furnishing? This has been the farmer's reasoning, for many gen- 

 erations past, and such reasoners are not all gone yet. But many 

 have adopted more enligh/ened views, and begin to sec, that, a man's 

 brains are worth more than his hands, even in the cultivation of the 

 soil, and will make the work of every hand, and every tool, upon the 

 farm, more available. The man, who sees this for his own calling, 

 will take liberal views of every other public interest. He will not 

 grudge the extra dollar that is put upon the new school-house, will 

 not despise the new seats, that have taken the place of the old oak 

 planks, and the coat of paint that has eclipsed the wood color of the 

 old clapboards. He has lij.',ht enough to mourn over the defects of 

 his own education, and willingly furnishes the means of instruction 

 to the rising generation. 



But there is a direct -pecuniary benefit to .society in scientific agri- 

 culture. It would bring cheaper food, and of much better quality, to 

 every man's door. In the absence of famine, \ye forget that famine 

 would now exist were it not for the improvement already affected by 

 the application of science to agriculture. It is this alone which has 

 enabled England to double her population, within a century. It is 

 this alone, which enables us to keep so much of our population upon 

 the sea-board, and which can keep it, against the strong competition 

 of the liew lands of the west. 



What science has done for British agriculture, it can do for ours. 

 There is no magic in great crops, and no miracles wrought in God's 

 rain and sunshine. " He sendeth his rain upon the just, and upon 

 the unjust." The man, that knows how to make his acres produce- 

 maximum crops, will get them, and he only. Providence will help 

 those, who learn how to help themselves. There is a wide difference 

 between good and bad husbandry, visible to all, M'ho look at it. 



