OPERATIONS OP^ THE BOARD. 359 



The State Board has always been disposed to aid the 

 societies and the farmers' clubs throughout the State, to the 

 extent of its ability, though it ought to be borne in mind 

 that it has no means at its command to pay for lectures. It 

 has no funds at its control except what the Legislature sees 

 fit to grant for specific purposes. In this respect, as well as 

 in its organization, functions, objects, and methods, it differs 

 wholly from a well-organized society with its treasurer and 

 its accumulation of funds. Nevertheless, its work is more 

 varied and far reaching than many people suppose. The 

 State Board, for example, immediately after its . organization, 

 instituted a correspondence and exchange of documents, not 

 only with all the States having state agricultural societies, 

 or similar state boards, in this countr}^, but with many other 

 countries, some of them as distant as the Sandwich Islands 

 and Australia. In this way it has been in the receipt of 

 many documents and books, some of which are of great 

 value : these it has freely placed in public and town libra- 

 ries, where they are brought within the reach of the people. 

 It has given more than two thousand bound volumes, not 

 including its own reports, to town libraries in the State, 

 within three years. 



The methods adopted for the improvement and develop- 

 ment of agriculture do not differ materially from those of 

 the older countries of Europe ; but the governments of 

 Europe are doing far more to develop, improve, and perfect 

 their agriculture than either our National or State Govern- 

 ments. Not content with innumerable agricultural societies, 

 state and local (by far the larger part of which receive more 

 or less state aid), or with very numerous agricultural col- 

 leges and schools devoted exclusively to agricultural science 

 and farm-practice, or with something like eighty scientific 

 experiment stations wholly devoted to investigations in 

 agriculture, they crown the system of state aid by giving 

 the agricultural interest a direct and powerful influence in 

 the central government, and an official dignity which is no- 

 where recognized in this country. Thus Prussia has its 

 Minister of Agricultural Affairs ; France has its Minister of 

 Agriculture, Commerce, and Public Works, and the respon- 

 sibility committed to this ministry is so great, that its work 

 is subdivided into several bureaus, each having its specific 



