12 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



It seems quite impossible that any sane man should question the 

 necessity of a special course of training for intelligent husbandry, 

 and when the necessity is admitted, it is both iirational and cow- 

 ardly to rest until a want of such magnitude is relieved by an 

 adecjuate supply. It is certainly inconsistent with the American 

 character, to yield without the mastery of the problem. Above all, 

 it would dishonor us as a State to nejrlect our duty. Maine is the 

 synonym of leadership in the history of bold and unliinching pro- 

 gressiveness ; if not at the front in this, we are nowhere to our 

 honor. 



No State has a deeper interest in the subject than ours. Maine is 

 emphatically a good agricultural State, and capable of supporting a 

 greatly increased population when its latent powers of production 

 are brought out by scientific methods and practical work ; but with 

 our present management or mismanagement, our 3'oung men are dis- 

 posed to break awa}' from the endearments of home, the scenes of 

 their childhood, and leave the graves of their fathers and mothers, and 

 seek a home in the far AVest. If they could be convinced that bv 

 an expenditure not so great as they will be obliged to make in re- 

 moving to a new country, and there building up meeting-houses and 

 school-houses, and roads, and other public improvements, they will 

 be less inclined to leave the scenes and the friends of their youth, to 

 encounter the hardships and privations of a new country. This is 

 one thing that should quicken our people to action, and a good rea- 

 son why we should see prompt and earnest work in the interest of 

 agricultural education in our State. Wh\' leave a stone unturned 

 that will tend to develop our own home industries ? We have 

 sixt3^-four thousand farms, and land enough for as many more. 

 Why suflE'er the States of Minnesota and Wisconsin, through their 

 legislators, to throw out stronger inducements tor their agri- 

 cultural interests than w^e, and draw our young men away from us, 

 when our climate is as good and better than theirs, and the moment 

 our productions are produced, they are worth double in our market 

 what theirs are in their home markets. 



Look at the cities of Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and many 

 other western cities, and what would have been those vast cities of 

 to-day had it not been for Maine and New England influence? 

 Consider for a moment the brains and the energies that have gone out 

 from us into those frontier towns of the West, and what would have 

 been that vast region to-day if not for Maine and New England 



