apital of his
State.

Book farming he scouts. The books upon agriculture, which every good
farmer should read and study, and prove, will cost him perhaps ten
dollars. By them his farm shall become his pride, his support, his
wealth. But this dull man cannot, or will not, learn that in the
dreaminess of his humdrum life, passed for thirty years or more upon his
farm, capital, industry, science, thought, and study have been at work,
and everything has been done, thus far, which can be done to make the
earth more gladsome, and the hearts of the children of men more thankful
to the Giver and Bestower of all our blessings. Away, then, with this
cant, prejudice, and sneering about 'book farming.' As well cry out
against book geography, or book philosophy, or book history, or book
law. Chemistry, botany, entomology, and pomology unite the results of
their researches in their various directions, and, while seeking
apparently different ends, yet converge toward the grand centre of a
systematic and scientific agriculture.

This laggard has not yet learned that it is his business and duty to
cultivate the earth, and not exhaust it; to get two blades of grass this
year where but one blade grew before; to gather thirty bushels of corn
from the acre which produced but twenty bushels last year; to shear
three pounds of wool off the sheep which five years ago gave but two
pounds, and so on. He thinks to see how near the agricultural wind he
can move and his sails not shake, or with how little labor he can carry
his farm through the year and not starve. The poverty of the whole
establishment, man and wife, and children, and stock, their
uncleanliness and unhealthfulness, are but the just results of such a
mode of living. They have their deserts. 'Ye cannot gather grapes of
thorns, nor figs of thistles.'

This illustration may seem exaggerated, the example too extreme. We
would that its semblance could not be seen in all wide America.

What power, what influences, or what teachings will work the change in
the habits of life of those who thus pretend to cultivate the earth?
What shall bring them to a clearer realization of their position, their
duties, their opportunities, their prospects? This lethargy of
ignorance, indifference, and laziness must be shaken off and laid aside
in the immediate future, by study and education, by active interest and
participation in every discovery or invention which benefits
agriculture; by the exerci