129 
PREREQUISITES TO SUCCESS. 
more fertile than ever before ; and how, by skillful rotation of 
crops, together with certain fertilizers, the ground may be pre¬ 
served for ages in all its primeval richness. These are simple 
matters, it is true, to the scientific farmer, yet surely they are 
of such importance to success as can be hardly calculated.— 
The man who knows them, will find that, by getting thus at the 
bottom of the subject, not only the thousand principles of agri¬ 
culture, that were before as blind as night, and which wrapped 
the whole art in obscurity, are made perfectly plain, but that 
his intellect is daily as much exercised and improved as his 
body. He will find that agriculture is no menial craft, no Au¬ 
gean stable or stone of Sisyphus ; but an art that rises and 
brightens in philosophy to the height of the noblest interest 
and dignity ; one that is filled with truths as beautiful, with 
wonders as sublime, as probably ever delighted or astonished 
the human mind. 
We therefore say, that the Farmer should be an educated man. 
We do not mean that it is requisite, that he should know how 
to translate the pages of Terence or of Thucydides, or be able 
to solve the knotty problems in Calculus and Physical Astron¬ 
omy ; for, although these have their use in disciplining the 
mind and strengthening its powers, yet they are hardly indis¬ 
pensable for the field. But, we aver, that every farmer should 
know something of Chemistry and Natural history : of Botany 
and Natural Philosophy. He ought, indeed, to be an adept in 
the Natural Sciences generally. Let him especially learn 
Agricultural Chemistry, by heart ; let him devote his long win¬ 
ter evenings to the study of this and other branches of his pur¬ 
suit, and be assured, he will find his toil bountifully repaid. He 
never reaped a richer harvest. 
We speak with confidence, not only this, but we further 
affirm, that the time is fast coming when farmers in this coun¬ 
try, will be compelled to study these things. Our present 
system of farming and modes of tillage, are too rank and hard 
even for this splendid soil. These lands, however fertile, 
must finally give way, and grow poor and barren under such 
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