mulations of liis OAvn barn yard, and which of them possesses 

 the very elements required by his own soiL All the condi- 

 tions, relations and effects of soils, manures, crops, etc., must 

 be understood by him, as the laws that govern and influence 

 navigation arc to the mariner ; and it would be as wise in the 

 latter to go to sea without compass or quadrant, chronometer 

 or charts, designing to feel his way — to make his voyage prac- 

 tically instead of trusting to " book learning," as it is for the 

 farmer to go to his business without preparation in knowing 

 the great principles that have governed the world since the 

 new lands first appeared above the waters and gave birth to 

 the grasses, because he will not accept " book farming." To 

 be sure, after all, success must depend on practice ; and so it 

 must in law and physic, in divinity and mechanics ; but shall 

 we therefore have no schools of instruction in those branches ? 

 AVhat is practice but the application of the principles laid 

 down in the books to the details of a business ? The New 

 England farmer stands in the same relation to his exhausted 

 lands, that the physician does to his patient, restoring vitality, 

 regulating food and directing employment. We have scientific 

 physicians and quack doctors ', and we have scientific farmers 

 and quack farmers. It sometimes happens that the sagacious 

 quack is superior to the theoretrical physician ; but it is no 

 wiser to go into farming without knowledge, than it is to ex- 

 pect to be successful in medicine without study. But there is 

 no danger that our young farmers will neglect the acquisition 

 of agricultural knowledge. It is not in the New England 

 mind to see an eflfect and not inquire into the cause. Our na- 

 tures revolt at becoming machines, and all employment is 

 without pleasure where we do not understand the operations 

 of the laws that govern it. With that knowledge there is a 

 world of delight in nature. Every stone and every bone and 

 every field and every tree has its story ; every flower, every 

 plant, every bird, every animal has its history ! and all nature 

 opens to the eye new beauties, as do the heavens to the astron- 

 omer. It is to the intelligent farmer that there arc " books in 



