Genre:

Essay, Satire; Illustration, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct. [2]

Subjects:

Agriculture, Education, Astrology, Electricity, Instruments, Steam-power, Psychology, Machinery

    Summarises the views of a 'distinguished metaphysician' on the 'Agricultural Mind', which possesses qualities of 'Consciousness, Perception, Conception, Imagination, Memory, and Judgement'. Contends that the agricultural mind is 'conscious of being in a predicament', perceives 'what it sees, but not what it does not see', and conceives 'external objects', but not 'how a labourer and his family can live upon seven shillings a week'. (97) Adds that it can imagine farm buildings but not 'fields ploughed by steam, or crops raised by electricity', and although its memory is short, it can remember when wheat was 'so much [...] a load'. It is also a 'good judge of horse-flesh' and grain but occasionally resorts to 'Moore's Almanack' for predicting the weather. An illustration, with the caption 'Professor Buckwheat Educing the Agricultural Mind', shows a figure lecturing to agricultural workers with an electrical machine. (98)