, 534 [Assembly 



industry of man, and have published works which dignify, while 

 they point at the means of advanc ng agriculture as a science. 



it is a well considered arrangement of your society, that among 

 the premiums to be awarded for the best products of the farm, 

 the dairy, the orchard and the garden, are some of these approved 

 and useful works. They will not fail to extend the knowledge of 

 new and improved processes in farming, and to explain to many 

 a one the nature and the causes of the success which commanded 

 the premium — but which success may have been looked upon 

 rather as a happy accident, than as the result of well applied skill 

 and care. 



In truth, gentlemen, it is in your business, as in every other 

 business, that knowledge is power ; and, other things being equal, 

 that he who best understands the nature of the soil he cultivates, 

 the manure best adapted to its peculiarities, and to the crops he 

 designs to raise, will succeed best. 



Startins;, then, from this point, I would venture to say, that the 

 first step to be taken in bettering the style of farming in any 

 county, is by bettering its common schools. By the wise munifi- 

 cence of the State, education is free and open to all. Schools, 

 therefore, there will be. but the character and practical worth of 

 the schools will depend upon those who, in each school district, 

 shall employ and regu^te the compensation of the teacher. If 

 cheapness be the chief point aimed at: if the man or woman to 

 whom is to be intrusted the training of immortal beings — the fu- 

 ture men and women of the country — is to be chaff^ed with and 

 beaten down to the lowest cent upon which a bare existence can 

 be supported ; if an educator of the intellect and the heart is to 

 be rated, as to compensation, no higher tlian the trainer of the 

 horse or the ox, it must necessarily follow that the instruction 

 will be as cheap as the wages, and that no duly qualified person, 

 possessing conscientiousness as well as knowledge, can be had. 

 It is for you, gentlemen, who constitute the force and sjive color 

 to the sentiments of the rural districts, to give to this suggestion 

 such consideration as you may think it deserves. 



