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would be pretty sure to look down upon him 

 for the rest of life. 



This was the reasoning. The idea became 

 abont as fast in the public mind, as a 

 thorough-going former wishes his gate post 

 to be in the ground. To read tolerably, to 

 spell badly, and to cypher worse, was enough 

 for the unlucky boy that was condemned to 

 farm life. Well, where is this old idea, half 

 justifiable fifty years ago, gone to now? 

 Nowhere. It sticks in the heads of some 

 people like a well-set gate-post in the ground. 

 Too many farmers still think that reading, 

 reflection, reasoning, the brightening up of 

 the mental powers, is of no use to them. 

 They laugh at science; call it book farming 

 with a sneer, if some neighbor tries to pry 

 into the secrets of the trade, or sends his 

 son to an agricultural school. The farmer, 

 they think, need not know much! ! Tliis is 

 a terrible mistake! 1 1 



It has been true since time began, and 

 will be while time lasts — a truth unaltered 

 and unalterable — that any profession is hon- 

 ored just about in proportion as the men ex- 

 ercising it are intelligent, mentally cultiTat- 

 ed, self-improTed. 



To improve your soils, your fruits, your 

 breeds of cattle, is well. But it generally 

 happens that, when a man fails to improve 

 himself, nothing improves around him. He 

 rusts, and his buildings rot; all becomes 

 worse, and his profession suflfers in the pub- 

 lic estimation. An ignorant farmer is a dis- 

 grace to his profession, j ust as an ignorant 

 minister, an ignorant lawyer, an ignorant 

 doctor, or an ignorant, narrow.minded mer- 

 chant is a disgrace to bis. We do not say 

 that the farmer should know all that these 

 men know. "Every man to his trade." 

 But he should know his business as well as 

 they theirs; and in order to do this, he has 

 much to learn beyond what fell to him by 

 being born on a farm, or will come to him 

 of course by being brought up a farmer. 



We would not counsel farmers to read 

 poetry in seed time, or romance in harvest. 

 The tendencies of their calling are rather 

 scientific than literary. Their business is an 

 art, but it is so interwoven with many sci- 



ences, that to speak of the science of Agri- 

 culture is no absurdity. The soil is a sort 

 of chemical laboratory, and if the farmer 

 knows enough of chemistry to comprehend 

 steadily the chemical allusions in his agri- 

 cultural journal, it is of immense advantage 

 to kim. Plants have peculiar laws for 

 drawing nourishment from the air and the 

 soil, and if he understands these laws he can 

 better minister to their wants, and will there- 

 by gain enough in a single year to pay him 

 for carefully studying a small treatise on 

 vegetable Physiology. Animals have causes 

 of thrift and unthrift, laws of growth, dis- 

 eases; and how can he be ready for every 

 emergency in the stall unless he understands 

 the nature of the animal he cares for? 



We grant that his knowledge on this sub- 

 ject is to be obtained mostly from observa- 

 tion, bat then his power of observation will 

 be quickened and made far more useful to 

 him by some reading. His profession is in 

 some respects like that of war. He has en- 

 emies, and how can he win, unless he keeps 

 himself informed on the nature, positions, 

 and probable movements of the enemy? 



But we forbear. The benefits of study 

 to the farmer are not all payable in dollars 

 and cents. It gives liim personal consider- 

 ation, a high standing in the community — 

 influence. It makes him an honor to his 

 profession. The intelligent, inquiring farm- 

 er, of awakened intellect, elevates his pro- 

 fession, just as the ignorant farmer, of no in- 

 quisitiveness, with no mind aroused to action, 

 sinks it. The one honors, as the other dis- 

 graces, the whole body of farmers. The 

 intelligent farmer, and we have more such 

 than any other country after all our deficien- 

 cies, is a pattern to bis fellows, and in this 

 way is pre-eminently useful; for of all the 

 model farms we have ever seen, none are 

 more instructive than those of some self- 

 made, but well made thoroughly instructed 

 farmers among ourselves. 



Where a majority of farmers will consent 

 to become like them, aiming at a high self- 

 culture, with a wise reference to their busi- 

 ness, and a generous desire for usefulness, 

 and a high standing before the community, 



