232 PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 



farmer needs books. It is difficult, if not impossible, 

 for him to reach the top of his profession without 

 them. 



I have seen with what eagerness the merchant runs 

 over the prices current, and with what prying curiosity 

 the manufacturer seeks out and appropriates the latest 

 improvement in his line. I wish I could see the far- 

 mer as eager for the best agricultural paper, as the 

 merchant is for the best journal of commerce, or the 

 manufacturer for the best practical machinist. If the 

 minister, the lawyer, and the doctor, insist upon great 

 libraries of their professions, I wish the farmer would 

 as resolutely insist upon a small one of .his. Then 

 would knowledge be increased; what one farmer 

 knows all would know ; and it would be a prodigious 

 amount. It would be a kind of knowledge that is 

 practically useful, beneficial, not to a few, but to the 

 whole world. 



