98 Transactions of the 



there is a course of three weeks of public school vacation, in which 

 common school teachers are posted up in the general principles of agriculture, 

 an example I greatly wish we might imitate in this country. 



Nor is this all, or even the greater part of what those enlightened 

 Governments are doing for the promotion of agriculture. Scattered 

 through various neighborhoods are what are called experimental 

 stations, where from twelve to twenty acres are divided into small 

 sections for experiments iu fertilizers, rotation of crops, etc., with a 

 chemical laboratory and professor attached; with accommodations for 

 animals, that questions of breeding, feeding, fattening, etc., may be 

 authoritatively settled. 



What I have said of Prussia is also true of Austria. But Russia, of 

 all European States, has in the last few 3 r ears pushed her efforts in this 

 direction to the grandest results, making a chain of agricultural schools 

 from St. Petersburg to the Caucasus. In eighteen hundred and fifty-six 

 the first of these was founded at Gorigoritz, and since then special 

 schools have been established for special cultures, such as flax, silk, etc., 

 according to the soil, climate, habits, and needs of the people. To the 

 great academy of " Agriculture and Forestry," near Moscow, the Gov- 

 ernment makes an annual appropriation of one hundred thousand 

 dollars. In Caucasia the tuition is not only made free, but small 

 incomes are secured to the students, ranging from forty dollars for the 

 first year to eighty dollars for the fourth and last. 



What have we to show in comparison with all this? Until within a 

 very few years there has been no State patronage of agriculture, except 

 the little that could be accomplished by State societies organizing 

 annual exhibitions and Fairs, which have been nearly or quite self-sup- 

 porting. 



The National Bureau, at Washington, restricted by inadequate appro- 

 priations and seriously interrupted by the war, has nevertheless steadily 

 worked on in building up a vast repository of all useful information 

 respecting agriculture in all its branches. This economic knowledge has 

 been freely dispensed through its reports. It has gathered seeds and 

 cuttings from every part of the globe, directed public attention to new 

 objects, and has its corps of observers and reporters investigating the 

 most important subjects of climates, soils, fertilizers, and destructive 

 insects. Every farmer ought to feel the importance of a representation 

 which will foster and sustain this long neglected branch of the public 

 service, and to keep himself informed with regard to its work. It is all 

 the more important because our sj^stem of agriculture, like our system 

 of Government, must be developed according to new conditions, and not 

 in a blind imitation of foreign models. 



With the exception of efforts made in Michigan and one or two other 

 States, the subject of agricultural education was practically ignored in 

 this country until Congress, by the Act of July second, eighteen hun- 

 dred and sixty-two, gave to each of the States the means of founding 

 {not of sustaining) institutions having this for their object. The object of 

 this grant was, without a doubt, to make more farmers and mechanics, and 

 not, as I have heard it claimed, to educate the sons of farmers and 

 mechanics. Were the latter all that was contemplated, it would be 

 right to hitch an agricultural professor or two to some existing college — 

 feeder of the professions, and take the income of the grant as a quid pro 

 quo; but I know of no reason why Congress should educate your son 

 morejjthan your doctor's, but I do see a vei'y good reason for establishing 

 great manufactories of intelligent industry. This Congress has aimed 



