SECRETARY'S REPORT. 45 



Brooks, Spragiie, Lewis and Brown be a committee to con- 

 sider and report to this Board what further measures, if any, 

 are needed, to subserve the cause of agriculture in this Com- 

 monwealth ; and at the annual meeting of the Board, held at 

 the State House on the 16th of January, that committee sub- 

 mitted the following 



REPORT: 



Having given the subject their careful consideration, they are of 

 the opinion that nothing would be better calculated to advance the 

 cause of agriculture, and foster and direct the growing interest therein 

 throughout the community at large, than the immediate establish- 

 ment of an experimental farm, and as soon as the funds shall permit, 

 of an agricultural school in connection thercAvith, where both the 

 science and the practice of farming may be taught in all their depart- 

 ments. 



Your committee do not propose to set forth in detail the many 

 reasons which have led them to this conclusion ; but they will be 

 pardoned in suggesting one or two of the most important. 



First. There is not at the present time, to the knowledge of your 

 committee, any society or board existing in this Commonwealth author- 

 ized by act of the legislature to hold funds to be applied exclusively 

 to the advancement of scientific and practical agriculture, or the diffu- 

 sion of knowledge connected with rural economy. 



Secondly. In the opinion of your committee, the time has arrived 

 when the wants of the community demand something of this kind — a 

 time when the learned professions seem to be more than full — when 

 the attention of our citizens, and in particular of our young men, is 

 being more than ever directed to the cultivation of the soil, and when 

 many, both wealthy and liberal men in the Commonwealth, are hold- 

 ing out the inducement of an ample supply of funds in furtherance 

 of such an undertaking. 



Influenced by these considerations, among many others, your com- 

 mittee respectfully recommend that a committee be chosen by this 

 Board to apply to the present legislature for an act authorizing the 

 formation of a Board of Trustees, capable of holding funds to be 

 applied in establishing an experimental farm and an agricultural 

 school connected with it, designed to furnish instruction in every 

 branch of rural economy, theoretical and practical. 



B. V. French. 

 Seth Sprague. 

 John Brooks. 



