136 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



degree of special instruction would fit him to enter life with 

 every prospect of success. To supply this absolute want, the 

 committee propose the establishment of — 



2. An agricultural school, with a farm attached to it, in each 

 county, to be devoted exclusively to agricultural instruction, 

 uniting science with correct practice. 



The committee do not consider that the adoption of the sec- 

 ond feature of their plan as of so much immediate necessity as 

 the first, or that the adoption of the first is to depend at all 

 upon the second being immediately entered upon. But it fol- 

 lows naturally, if not necessarily, in any prescribed course of 

 agricultural education. 



The establishment of county agricultural schools requires a 

 great deal of consideration as to detail, with which it is not 

 considered necessary to incumber a report of this nature, and 

 the committee will therefore confine themselves to a few gen- 

 eral remarks as to what is proposed to be accomplished by these 

 schools of special instruction, without attempting to present a 

 well-digested plan for their organization. 



They will content themselves with remarking, that these 

 county schools need not be expensive undertakings. They 

 should be commenced upon the plan of educating youths in 

 the best methods of farm management, connecting with it such 

 knowledge of the science and theory of agriculture, as can be 

 obtained by devoting a portion of the time to study, under 

 competent instructors. At these schools, system, economy, the 

 right adaptation of means to ends, the knowledge of what can 

 be cultivated with profit, by learning to calculate the cost of 

 production, — in short, the doing of every thing, with the reason 

 for doing it, to be shown by a satisfactory result, — these are 

 the main points to be observed in establishing them. There 

 are in the numerous schools already established in various parts 

 of the world, means for digesting a plan suitable for Massachu- 

 setts. The report of Dr. Hitchcock on the agricultural schools 

 of Europe, and the essay of the Hon. II. P. French, now in 

 course of publication by the Massachusetts Society for Promot- 

 ing Agriculture, furnish full information upon this subject. 



In recommending so simple a plan, and one so unpretending 

 in character, the committee fear that it may disappoint the 



