1 4 Address. 



Now, to assert that a young man cannot be immensely strengthened and 

 benefitted by special, scientific preparation to practice agriculture, is to 

 admit that though so loudly praised as the first, last, and noblest occupa- 

 tion of the race, it is really degrading in its nature, and designed, in the 

 organization of society, only for those poor, stupid, ignorant, or unfortu- 

 nate persons who are unable to secure a livelihood in any other way— a 

 doctrine which the Massachusetts fanners arc hardly ready to accept. 



But perhaps the inqnjry may arise, why the graduates of our older col- 

 leges are not more commonly found engaged in agriculture, if it be so ex- 

 cellent a business and one so greatly advantaged by education. The ex- 

 planation is obvious and most satisfactory. 



In the first place, the course of study is not at all adapted to qualify a 

 man for farming. Seven years of the best of life, are necessarily spent 

 away from all practical pursuits, and almost exclusive attention given du- 

 ring most of this period to the dead languages, pure mathematics, and 

 metaphysics. The natural sciences and mixed mathematics are studied 

 comparatively little, and without reference to their application to agricul- 

 ture, or any other art. 



Again, nearly all students, when entering upon a classical course, have 

 in view one of the three learned professions, and naturally come to regard 

 themselves as rising above the level of the agricultural community, pre- 

 cisely in proportion to the extent of their literary attainments. 



Finally, most college graduates are destitute of any other capital than 

 their education, and are therefore compelled to begin life in a small way 

 by teaching, or the practice of a profession which requires but a moderate 

 investment of money. Without land, stock, tools, or ready cash, without 

 a knowledge of business in general, or farming in particular, and without 

 the respect or sympathy of the farmers themselves, the graduate of a clas- 

 sical college has few inducements to enter the profession. 



Let no one, however, imagine that study tends to indolence, or that pro- 

 fessional men are less laborious than farmers, or that an educated farmer 

 will accomplish less than an ignorant one. It has been well said that 

 " what is often called indolence, is, in fact, the unconscious consciousness 

 of incapacity." On the other hand, knowledge is power and its conscious 

 possession must render the farmer, as well as every other man, more ambi- 

 tious, more energetic, and more efficient. Genius has been well defined as 

 capacity for labor, and the most patient and enthusiastic workers of the 

 world are the great scholars Thought is " brain-sweat f and mental 

 labor is vastly more exhausting than the exercise of the muscles; vet there 



