496 [Assembly 



husbandry, was among the most important of our national weal, 

 in his capacious, practical mind. I will not tax you with further 

 quotations from his pen ; but Mr. Jefferson must be heard, and in 

 his sixth annual message, he says in regard to agricultural educa- 

 tion : 



" Xot that it would be proposed to take its ordinary branches 

 out of the hands of private enterprise, which manage so much 

 better all the concerns to which it is equal, but a publici/istitution 

 can- alone stipply those sciences^ which though rarely called for, are 

 yet necessary to complete the circle, all the parts of which con- 

 tribute to the improvement of the country, and some of them to 

 its preservation." 



I will add an extract from the message of- another agricultural 

 President, I refer to the lamented Taylur, who in the only annual 

 message it was permitted him to send to our Congress, remarks : 



"No direct aid has been given by the general government to the 

 improvement of agriculture, except by the expenditure of small 

 sums for the collection and publication of agricultural statistics, 

 and for some chemical analyses. This aid is, in my (tpini;n, wholly 

 inadequate. To give to this leading branch of American industry, 

 the encouragement it merits, I respectfully recommend the estab- 

 lishment of an agricultural bureau. To elevate the social condition 

 of the agriculturist ; to increase his prosptrity, and extend the. 

 means of usefulness to his country, by multiplying his sources of in^ 

 formation, should be the study of every Statesman, and the primary 

 object of every Legist at or. '^^ 



I will close my quotations vrith the views of our present Chief 

 Magistrate on this much neglected branch, so far as the fostering 

 care of our general or State government is concerned. 



In his first message he says: " More than three-iourths of our - 

 population are engaged in the cultivation of the soil. The com- 

 mercial, manufacturing and navigating interests are all, to a great 

 extent, dependent on the agricultural. It is, therefore, the most 

 important interest of the nation, and has a just claim to the foster- 

 ing care and protection of the government, so far as they can be 

 extended consistently with the provisions of the Constitution. 



