1850. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
137 
getation depend on the degree of these indispensi- 
ble stimulants. The general angle of incidence, 
with which light strikes the earth, settles the ques¬ 
tion of climate, in all its gradations, from tropical 
to polar. Ignorance and superstition have attribu¬ 
ted important influences on the weather and the sea¬ 
sons, as well as on other human interests, to the 
moon, stars, and signs of the zodiac. But science 
does not confirm these opinions, but shows them to 
be baseless and harmful. 
7. To Zoology .—With one class of animals, the 
farmer is concerned for the purposes of draught, food 
and clothing. They are the horse, cow, swine, 
sheep, goat, goose, hen, silkworm, 8tc. 
With another class he associates an interest, as they 
are his auxiliaries in repelling the depredations of 
others that are noxious. They are such as the dog, 
the cat, various sorts of birds, and some classes of 
insects. 
A third class, mostly birds and insects, are famil¬ 
iar to him as destructive to the interests of the field 
crop, the garden and the orchard. 
With the forms, habits, &c., of each, the cultiva¬ 
tor should be acquainted, that he may know how to 
avail himself of the aid of the useful, as well as to 
repel the encroachments of the mischievous. 
An enlightened and discriminating view of this 
subject has corrected many popular errors. Many 
animals, once considered useless, and perhaps repul¬ 
sive in form and habits, are now found to be peace¬ 
ful and important auxiliaries to the gardener and 
farmer. Thus the toad, so unshapely to the eye, 
and once thought worthy to be a sort of personation 
of the evil one, is now known, not only to be not 
poisonous, but eminently destructive of innumera¬ 
ble insects. So also, many birds, once hunted with 
avidity, on account of an occasional injury to the 
field or garden, are now ascertained to accomplish 
a large balance of good. 
8. To Mechanics .—The farmer needs carriages, 
various tools,especially for cultivation and seed sow¬ 
ing, reaping, excavation, &c. 
In the construction of these, reference should be 
had to the persons using them, and the quality of 
the soil to be cultivated, and the facility with which 
they may be used, and their durability. In nothing 
does the enlightened agriculture of some nations ap¬ 
pear more than in the wisdom of their machinery. 
9. To Commerce .—The supply of agricultural 
productions, in an enlightened community in a ge¬ 
nial clime and upon a fertile soil, will be limited on¬ 
ly by the demand. This demand will depend on a 
well regulated commerce. A surplus of productions 
will itself be likely to originate commercial enter¬ 
prises and regulations. Hence will result a wise 
appropriation of the soil in any country, guided by 
its natural powers, and the foreign demand. 
10. To Artistic Skill .—-Suppose the farmer to be 
instructed intellectually in all the facts and sciences 
of his calling, he yet needs wisdom to concentrate 
all upon his appropriate labors, that they may be 
performed with appropriate skill, at the proper time, 
and result ordinarily in abundant and cheap produc¬ 
tions, appropriate to the soil and the demands of 
commerce. Such results will ordinarily follow only 
where the cultivator has passed through a leisure 
apprenticeship of principles and manipulations; the 
one acquired in the field, the other in the study or 
the schools, and both pursued with a just apprecia¬ 
tion of the utility and dignity of agriculture. 
OBSERVATIONS.. 
Let the Farmer seek higher qualifications Per¬ 
haps some, after contemplating the preceding out- 
of relations, may be disposed to say that “such 
and such persons, in the past and present genera¬ 
tion, have been and are good farmers, without all 
this parade of education.” I answer, that in pro¬ 
portion to their skill and success, they had, at least 
practically, some of the advantages of such an edu¬ 
cation, advantages gradually acquired from experi¬ 
ence, observation and reading. And who shall say 
how much more successful they might have been un¬ 
der higher advantages from these sources. Again, 
is it not painfully evident that the want of knowledge 
and skill are a great drawback on the profitableness 
of much of the farming of the present day? How 
much loss results from the want of well-constructed 
tools, unwise plowing, ignorance of the proper rota¬ 
tion of crops, the just adaptation of crops to parti¬ 
cular soils, badly selected flocks and herds, waste 
of food in fattening animals, bad selections of fruits, 
&c. Now much of this loss would be prevented by 
a wise agricultural education, the cost of which, to 
a young man, would not be equal to the loss of a 
single year, arising from the mismanagement of his 
farm. 
Another reader of these observations, who admits 
them in all their force, will exclaim, “ how am I, 
a poor youth, ever to become a farmer if such be 
the needful qualifications?” Here you point out ten 
scientific relations of agriculture, each one of which 
would require at least a year of hard study in the 
attainment of its rudiments, a thing for which nine¬ 
ty-nine in the hundred of young men have neither 
money nor time.” I answer, there are various sta¬ 
ges in the path of improvement. Many a young 
man, who cannot get a collegiate education, nor 
spend two or three years at an agricultural school, 
may yet spend a year or two with some farmer of 
enlightened mind, and improved modes of culture. 
And if a poor young man cannot do even that, the 
simple fact, that his mind is awakened to a know¬ 
ledge of his own ignorance, and the existence of 
sources of light, will have the effect to arouse all his 
powers of attainment, so that his eye, his ear, and 
his mouth, are all henceforth to be opened in the ea¬ 
ger pursuit of appropriate knowledge. The spell 
of traditionary usage is broken, and he at once 
thrown into the path of certain, though it may be 
slow, improvement. Henceforth, he will seek new 
books appropriate to his calling; he will watch ex¬ 
periments in his own labors, and those of his neigh¬ 
bors. Thus, by the time he reaches middle age, ftO 
will have made the most desirable attainments in 
his calling. Others, meanwhile, with more means 
and higher advantages, will have become fitted to 
be Professors in the science of agriculture. 
Society will thus, on this subject, present a beau¬ 
tiful climax of attainment, from the first lessons and 
labors of the ardent youth to the sublime theories, 
and startling results, of the doctors of agricultural 
philosophy. Thus, the science of Agriculture, so 
fundamental to all the interests of human society, 
and so intimately related to almost all the other sci 
ences, will no longer bear the reproach of being 
conducted by machines as mindless as the patient ox 
or “iron horse” that impels his heavy machinery, 
but the agriculturist will be classed among the most 
enlightened students of the works of God, and be 
worthy to be considered the firmest pillar in the 
church and the state. 
At the same time the equipoise between rural and 
literary pursuits will be maintained, and men will 
no longer forsake the plow emulous of fame in the 
supposed elevated paths of science. 
2. Let the Farmer feel an established conviction 
of the Dignity of his calling .—That calling is first 
in historic origin, first in necessity, first in comfort, 
