HINDRANCES AND HELPS. 241 



under a tree, vrakes up, and sniffs sharply at the 

 bottom of the stranger's pantaloons. 



I have written thus much, in this vein, to show 

 the defensible position of many of the old stylo 

 farmers, crusted over with their prejudices many of 

 them well based, it must be admitted and armed 

 with an inextinguishable shrewdness. The only way 

 to prick through the rind is to show them a big crop 

 grown at small cost, and an orderly and profitable 

 method, gradually out-ranking their slatternly hus- 

 bandry. Is!" or can I omit to say in this connection, 

 that the free interchange of questions and answers, 

 and unstarched companionship, Avhich belonged to the 

 New Haven Agricultural Convention of 1860, are 

 among the best means of breaking down the walls 

 of demarcation, and establishing chemical affinities 

 between Science and Practice. 



Lack of Precision. 



T I ^HU; manufacturer, in ordinary times, can tell us 

 _1_ with a good deal of certainty how much work 

 he can turn out in any given month, and what his 

 profits will be. The farmer, whose crops are depend- 

 ent in a greater or less degree upon contingencies of 

 wet, or rain, or cold, over which he has no control, is 

 less positive ; and as a consequence, I think, he grows 

 11 



