84 'Wisconsin state Agricultural society. 
the profession of agriculture can rise only as the farmer himself is 
exalted in the scale of intelligence. Without a knowledge of the 
fundamental principles of agricultural science, he has no more 
reason to expect professional success than the quack in medicine, 
who knows nothing of anatomy, physiology, pathology or hygiene, 
and is utterly ignorant of the most approved remedial agents— 
the patient may get well in spite of the physician. So it is with 
much of our farming—it is sheer quackery, and that the pitiful 
results which we witness are not far worse, is owing to the great 
benificence of nature, whose patient endurance of all sorts of vio¬ 
lation of her laws, is a never ending marvel. When we think of 
the delicacy ot organization of both plant and animal—of the 
numberless circumstances which, in one way or another, modify 
their growth and determine the degree of their development, and 
of the laws but half revealed, in accordance with which the most 
complete results can alone be obtained—even the wisest are 
amazed at how little thev know of their life’s business—what then 
«/ 
shall be said of the great multitude, whose practice warrants the 
conclusion that they have no idea of the manner in which the 
plant makes its growth, or the animal is developed—who laugh 
at all theories of selection, whether in planting or in breeding ? 
It is a great mistake to suppose that the farmer needs less intel¬ 
lectual culture and material discipline than those who are en¬ 
gaged in other occupations. There is no business in life that re¬ 
quires for its successful pursuit a more active mind, broader views, 
or a more thorough training than that of the farmer. Scarcely a 
science can be named within the whole scope of human research, 
but has a bearing upon his occupation; and upon some of the 
most intricate of these, unconsciously perhaps, he builds all of his 
successes, and scatters the wrecks of all his failures. Agriculture 
not only deals with soils — their composition and degrees of fer¬ 
tility— but with everything that pertains to animal and vegetable 
life. To make agricultural labor popular, and, in the best and 
truest sense, profitable, it must be associated with the highest in¬ 
telligence. There must be more train work and less muscular 
effort. The grand problem is to secure the greatest returns, the 
highest aggregate of satisfaction, with the least expenditure of 
effort. The question of cheap or reasonable rates of transporta- 
