PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 281 



vainly conceive, should look down and scorn tlie 

 foundation ! 



I can hardly forgive the man or woman who speaks 

 slightly of the intelligence, the worth, or the social 

 importance of farmers. The farmer ignorant ? It is 

 impossible I He lives amid the communions of nature. 

 The common mother of us all teaches him daily. The 

 heavens always shine on him. How different with 

 those, who, when^they look around, see nothing but 

 paving-stones, dry -goods, and hardware ; and who, 

 when they look up, see no heavens, unless they can 

 see through brick and mortar ! The works of man 

 fill all their thought. What wonder if they fail to wor- 

 ship a higher God than Mammon ! The farmer com- 

 munes ever with the works of the Almighty. What 

 should hinder him from being a reverent learner ? He 

 lives amid revelations. He cannot be ignorant, if he 

 would. Away, away, ye profane ones, who speak 

 flippantly of the farmer and his calling. 



Nevertheless, it must be confessed, that farmers 

 are not always as eager for the knowledge pertaining 

 to their profession as would be desirable. They are 

 not destitute of important knowledge ; they cannot 

 be ; it is impossible. But their communion with the 

 broad folio of nature, renders their habits of thought 

 unfavorable, and sometimes averse even, to another 

 kind of study, which, after all, they really need, in 

 order to the highest success in their calling. The 

 clergyman, the doctor, the lawyer, need books on their 

 profession ,^nd so does the farmer on his. I grant 

 that he can learn a greater proportion of his duties 

 without books than they, but not the whole. Tht 



