STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 193 



the best instructors, and took a broader sweep. The finest engineering 

 successes of the world owe their existence to his splendid conceptions 

 and execution. 



Capacity to achieve such brilliant results is rare, but is confined to no 

 class of men. There is as little a royal road to genius as to learning. 

 General education will reveal it. The benefits to the world of the labors 

 and discoveries of one such man outweigh all the cost of' the education 

 of a generation. But while such splendid issue may be rarely expected 

 from thorough education, the stimulus of intellectual culture upon average 

 minds is strikingly marked b}^ the constant improvements in every branch 

 of mechanics, as witnessed by the patents issued by the Government, and 

 the fa(!t that those States wliich have carried instruction to the greatest 

 extent furnish the greatest ])i'n]:)ortion of inventors. Look over any list 

 of patents issued, and you will see evidence of restless intellectual activity 

 among our mechanics in improvements upon every conceivable article of 

 use or luxury — i'roni a pencil-sharpener to a piano-forte ; from a cheese- 

 press to a steam fire-engine; from a horse-rake to a quartz-crusher. 

 Wherever there is a want, invention struggles to supply it. A thousand 

 busy brains contend with any obstacle until it is removed. The vast 

 grain fields of the West req lired facilities superior to the sickle and 

 cradle, and lo, the reaper ! that sheared by the acre. The demand for rapid 

 communication created the steamer, the railroad, the telegraph. The 

 war demanded destructive agencies, and its Avildest energies had gratifi- 

 cation in swamp angels, monitors, and repeating arms. Agriculture has 

 had its share of the benefit of its improved machinery, in the useful experi- 

 ments which have been made in the nature of soils, the value of fertili- 

 zers, the improvement of stock, the introduction and propagation of new 

 and valualile ])lants, and, in fiict. in ever}^ department of its extensive 

 domain. Intelligence has done much to direct the labor of the farmer, 

 and much more to lighten it. Yet, after all the discoveries and improve- 

 ments in this great branch of industrj^, how much remains to be known ! 

 Natural laws are infinite, and their application to the uses of life immeasu- 

 rable. We must yet acknowledge our ignorance of these laws, and our 

 perplexity at their familiar operations. Science, practical and specula- 

 tive, was l):\ffled at the potato I'ot and the cattle disease, and has never 

 certainly discovered the causes or remedies. Organic husbandry is one 

 of the richest departments of science, and yet is almost M'hoHy in its 

 infancy. And of that which is known of agricultural chemistry, of vege- 

 table and animal production, of phj'sics, meteorology, vegetable and ani- 

 mal physiology, and geology, all necessary to be known for thorough 

 farming, there is less of scientific application than in any other pursuit 

 ca])al)le of being enriched by research. This is so because it is easy to be 

 a careless farmer, and even an ignorant one, and yet to be moderately 

 successful, where nature does most of the work herself, and does not 

 immediately resent and punish a violation of her laws. 'I'o extend a 

 knowledge of nature's operations, and of the laws which govern them, 

 and to enforce the practical application of the discoveries of science in 

 this broad department, generous facilities must be afforded for experi- 

 ment and instruction. 



To aid this object, an Act of Congress of eighteen hundred and sixty- 

 two provides for the establishment of colleges of agricullure and the 

 meclianic arts in such of the States as avail themselves of its ])rovisions, 

 and grants to each State thirtj' thousand acres of land for each Senator 



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