230 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



laboring as it has done continually in the cause to which it is devoted 

 — it is this Board which, by the Act of May 26, 1866, is constitu- 

 ted a board of overseers of the Massachusetts Agricultural College. 



In what I have already said, I have endeavored to show the 

 direction which intellectual efiorts in every form have taken for 

 the benefit of practical agriculture. I have traced the way from 

 individual labors in the form of books from masterly hands up to 

 that associated duty which has been so well discharged by boards 

 of agriculture in every State where they have been founded. And 

 I have pointed out how especially our own Board was originally 

 organized for the purposes of agricultural education in the hands 

 of practical teachers. 



While this labor has been going on in Massachusetts, the State 

 of Maine has been by no means idle. The industrious investigations 

 and admirable reports of Mr. S. L. Goodale, the Secretary of the 

 Board of Agriculture here, have passed into the most valuable of 

 our agricultural literature ; the practical papers published in his 

 annual reports, and his essay on breeding, being familiar to every 

 intelligent farmer. The discussions, also, of the members of your 

 Board have brought out many valuable facts and theories. 

 During this present session, I have been especially attracted by 

 the scientific essays of Professors Goodale and Brackett of Bow- 

 doin College, who have brought with them from the halls of that 

 institution an accuracy of knowledge, and a felicity of expression 

 which have filled me with admiration. It is especially gratifying 

 to know that the best culture of the State is interested in our 

 calling, and I trust these young scientific explorers will be encour- 

 aged in every way to offer future contributions to the valuable 

 store of knowledge which you are accumulating here. In express- 

 ing my own obligations to them, I am sure I speak the sentiments 

 of this entire assembly. 



I consider that the connection of this boaud with the agricultural 

 COLLEGE is a matter of the greatest importance to both institutions. 



To the Board, wliich I think has richly earned this distinction by 

 the services to which I have alluded, the connection is undoubtedly 

 important. Tliat the Boai'd of Agriculture should have been made 

 the trustees of the college by the act of incorporation, there can 

 now be but little doubt; and having been deprived of this oppor- 

 tunity for honor and usefulness, its elevation to the position of 

 overseers is but an act of justice. The labor wliich it has hitherto 

 performed, in spite of public indillerence, and without that authority 



