SECRETARY'S REPORT. 263 



which cannot be cultivated even imperfectly without yielding valua- 

 ble fruit. 



The assistance which the State at present renders towards the ad- 

 vancement of agriculture is essentially of an educational character. 

 She encourages Agricultural Societies which draw forth and exhibit 

 improved breeds of animals, improved implements of husbandry and 

 hold them up for imitation and for instruction. They also encour- 

 age improved methods of cultivation by offering inducements of 

 honor and profit, in the premiums awarded therefor. By these means 

 knowledge is diffused as well as emulation excited, 



The sessions of the Board of Agriculture are intended to sub- 

 serve the same end, by bringing together a body of men supposed to 

 be most deeply interested in its progress, by their discussions of the 

 ways and means of securing advance and by the interchange of views 

 and experience. The power of the press is also enlisted, and con- 

 tributes by scattering abroad over the State its annual reports. 



These means, although they are intended and adapted to operate 

 chiefly upon adults already actively engaged in agricultural pursuits, 

 and include no direct instrumentalities for imparting instruction to 

 the young, are not without considerable efficacy, and they may serve 

 a preliminary and necessary purpose by the introduction among all 

 classes, of such enlarged and enlightened views regarding methods 

 or institutions for promoting agricultural education, as shall, in 

 due time, lead to their adoption or establishment. One is sometimes 

 tempted to wonder that its necessity has not been sooner felt, and the 

 want supplied. Even an old Roman writer, amid the martial condi- 

 tion of a proud and heathenish empire, had the sagacity to perceive its 

 paramount importance and the honesty to utter his astonishment at its 

 neglect. — " Nothing equals my surprise," says he " when I consider 

 that while those who desire to learn to speak well, select an orator 

 whose eloquence may serve them as a model ; while those who are 

 anxious to dance or to become good musicians employ a dancing or 

 music master; in short that while every one looks for the best mas- 

 ter in order to make the best progress under his instructions, the 

 most important pursuit next to that of wisdom, has neither pupils 

 nor teachers. I have seen schools established for teaching rhetoric, 

 geometry, music, dancing, &c., but I have never seen a master to 

 teach agriculture nor a pupil to learn it." 



