434 [AssEJiuLT 



State, and we shalj soon see those of a similar character in every 

 county, where we could at any time congregate and see with our 

 own eyes the beneficial effects of scientific and proper manage- 

 ment o^' the soil, where theory is fully explained and carried out 

 in practice ; and I trust, gentlemen, the time is not far distant 

 when every school district in the rural portions of our State will 

 not only have its library but its laboratory, and teachers not only 

 competent to teach the common branches of education but com- 

 petent to analyze her soils, and teach every boy in the land who 

 is designed to cultivate it its parts and adaptations. An ancient 

 king of Sparta^when inquired of what he thought of the most 

 importance for boys to learn, replied, '^ those things which they 

 will practice when they become men.*' 



It was a most wise and emphatic reply, and one which we of 

 the nineteenth century can adopt with much propriety. We not 

 only require the teachings of agricultural science for our own 

 benefit, but more especially for the young, those who so soon are to 

 fill the places which we this day occupy. Those who have pre- 

 ceded us have done much to ameliorate our condition and in- 

 crease our happiness. It is, therefore, due from us to those who 

 may succeed us to adopt every means in our power for their 

 welfare. 



In establishing primary departments of agricultural chemistry in 

 our district schools and colleges for the higher branches", we should 

 see agriculture taking that high stand which its importance de- 

 mands. We should create institutions which thousands of young 

 men would seek, who now rush headlong into the overstocked pro- 

 fessions, because they have thus far been the highway to fame 

 and distinction, but the larger portion of whom have finally 

 dragged through a life of the most miserable dependence. 



Thousands of individuals in our towns and cities, who have 

 been engaged in mercantile and literary pursuits, would hail 

 with joy the establishment of such institutions, where they could 

 educate their sons to a profession free from the care, perplexity 

 and risk which they themselves have been subject to. Those 



