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undisturbed by the foot of man, save the occasional stealthy tread of the red 

 man of the forest. 



Now how changed the scene — oixr hill tops and our prairies dotted all over 

 with comfortable dwellings ; school houses in every neighbourhood ; cities have 

 sprung up along our borders ; internal improvements going on to successful com- 

 pletion ; the magnetic telegraph, the great 2^ar Darjtim of the body politic, has 

 shot across the trail of the savage ; commerce is pouring in upon us the products 

 of other climes, and we are enjoying all the blessings of a refined civilization. 



"Whence all this prosperity ? These unequivocal signs of progress ? The foun- 

 dation of it all is Agriculture. It is Agriculture that freights our steamboats, 

 swells the sail of commerce, pays for our imports, nerves the ai-m of our me- 

 chanics. 



Without Agriculture, mankind would be savages, thinly scattered through in- 

 terminable forests. 



Yet, notwithstanding its vast importance in a physical point of view, to the 

 well-being of the human race, the science of Agriculture has been the last to feel 

 the influence and receive the impulse of our modern crusade after light and 

 knowledge. It is true, poets have sang the praise of agriculture from the time 

 of Virgil down to the present day; politicians have been enthusiastic in their 

 admiration of it, and have taken great pains to shake hands with the hard-fisted 

 yeomanry, particularly on the eve of an important election ; executive messages 

 from year to year are regularly interlarded with eulogies upon it ; and yet, for 

 all this, nothing has been done by legislative enactment to raise it to a level with 

 the other sciences. The State has done nothing for the education of its children 

 for farmers. It is true, we have in prospect an ample school fund, but no law 

 regulating its application. Our children should be educated with reference to the 

 business they are to follow. Chemistry, Geology, Botany, and their kindred 

 sciences, should be taught in our common schools. — The State should lend its 

 aid in furnishing the necessary books and apparatus, and in other ways ; in our 

 University an Agricultural department should be established, this would do much 

 to elevate the standard of ao-ricultural education. 



I am willing to admit the fault is somewhat our own, for a lack of unity of 

 purpose and of action, and of earnest demands for our i-ights. — Nor do we 

 expect good farmers can be made by legislative enactment; but it is nevertheless 

 ti-ue that the aid and patronage of the State would tend to elevate and encourage 

 agiiculturists, and enable them to take rank among the most intelligent, as they 

 are now among the most virtuous. 



From our State Agricultural Society a vast amount of benefit is to be antici- 

 pated — their transactions, it is to be hoped, will be liberally distributed ; and 

 there is no doubt but that they will be sought for with a\'idity, and perused 



