IG 



ods in fasliion fifty years ago. Why should the farmer 

 close his eyes to the progress of the world ? Surely the 

 art of fanning is not wliat it was in the days of the 

 Pharaohs. Why should we think that wisdom will die 

 with us ! Is it too much to hope that the time will come 

 when farming shall not be altogether a tentative, experi- 

 mental, and therefore uncertain art, but that principles 

 shall be established corresponding to the innneuse inter- 

 ests involved in agricultural operations ? 



Wliy are some whom I see before me recognized, as emi- 

 nently successful farmers, held up as examples honorable 

 to Norfolk County ? Because they know how to employ 

 tlieir means judiciously, and because they endeavor to 

 bring, and so far as themselves are concerned, have 

 brought farming into good repute as an exact science and 

 a profitable art. The farmer must work. That hap|)y 

 necessity is laid upon him. Is it not better that he 

 should work intelligently than ignorantly ? — adding to 

 his own experience the results of ages of experimenting, 

 the improvements that successive generations have made 

 upon the rude attempts of the savage ? 



Let the farmer consider that his first duty is self-cul- 

 ture. If his early education was imperfect, there is so 

 much more need of increased activity in manhood. Per- 

 haps there is no calling in w^hich appropriate knowledge 

 is so sure of contributing to immediate success as agri- 

 culture. Hitherto none has suffered more from the lack 

 of it. 



And here I am reminded that most of the education 

 our young farmers receive is merely elementary and pre- 

 paratory, and that no school of agricultural science yet 

 furnishes the necessary specific instruction. Shall this 

 deficiency remain ? Will not our wealthy men, whose 

 munificence is proverbial, endow a school in which young 

 men may be taught the theory and the practice of farm- 



