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character which has been regarded necessary to 

 a farmer. I believe, and rejoice in the convic- 

 tion, that a new era is commencing, or rather has 

 already commenced in earnestness, in several 

 countries of the Eastern hemisphere, and that to 

 us here of the West, esp^'cially, a high and import- 

 ant trust has been committed, which, if faithfully 

 executed, will be pregnant with untold blessings 

 to all coming generations. To thoughtful minds 

 the truth is beginning everywhere to be more or 

 less distinctly recognized, that it is not every 

 man can, by the old routine of mere muscular 

 toil, be made a prosperous and improving farmer, 

 but that a good general education in the first 

 place, supplemented by special study and train- 

 ing, with the acquisition of sound business habits, 

 are the essential elements of success. The fact 

 is, that farming, intelligently pursued, is quite 

 as much an affair of the mind as of the body. 

 Indeed, muscular force, as is well known in all 

 other matters, spends itself for naught when not 

 directed by mental power; and most assuredly 

 the practice of husbandry is no exception to this 

 great, general law ; and he who successfully 

 labors to base the art of culture on the facts and 

 principles of science, dissipates the darkness and 

 uncertainties of empiricism, and becomes, in the 



