xl REPORTS OF DELEGATES. 



should be in all our societies. The remarkable success of the stu- 

 dents at the Ma-sachusetts Agricultural College in learning to 

 draw, attests the fact that there is scarcely a person who, if early- 

 trained in that direction, may not become sufficiently adept in the 

 art for ordinary practical purposes, and in no calling is its usefulness 

 more apparent than in agriculture. It is the great blot on the es- 

 cutcheon of the farmer that he not only invents no implements for 

 himself, leaving that to be done by outsiders, but that he pays 

 but little attention to the works of the Creator, amidst which his 

 whole life is passed, and thus his avocation is divested of its most 

 absorbing interest. 



It is not to be expected that every farmer will, like the inspired 

 ploughman of Scotland, indite an ode to every daisy he ploughs 

 under, nor like the mason of Cromarty, find " sermons in stones," 

 and discern ammonites in every flagstone his hammer divides ; but 

 it should be the aim of all having any oversight of the bringing up 

 of the present generation of agriculturists, to lead them to the 

 study of the soil and the plants and the animals and instruments 

 with which they work, and no readier nor more attractive way can 

 be found than by teaching them to study the parts of these objects, 

 and convey these impressions indelibly to the mind, by producing 

 copies by hand. 



The young man who can draw is in a fair way to make improve- 

 ments in his tools, to become interested in the mechanical part of 

 his calling, to understand the nature of the earth in which he 

 delves for a support, and the phenomena of the vegetable world of 

 which he is a secondary creator ; and the young woman, to become 

 a practical botanist, and instead of wasting her time in reading the 

 works of man between yellow covers, will attain the more exquisite 

 enjoyment of the perusal of the works of nature, bound in all the 

 colors of the rainbow. 



Commonly at our fairs a sum is put at the disposal of the com- 

 mittee, to be awarded on such articles under the headings of 

 " paintings and works of arts " as they may deem worthy, and as 

 the committee are not apt to be distinguished connoisseurs, the 

 photographs, pencil drawings, oil pictures, — generally mere copies, 

 or tricksey transfers — are, as it were, in hot water, and the least 

 meritorious is as apt to get the highest premium as the best. A 

 photograph should not be allowed to compete with an original 

 painting or drawing ; nor the latter with mechanical copies, but 

 each should be in a class by itself, and the premiums so graded, that 

 the real works of art should be awarded the highest. And our 

 agricultural societies can do no better work than in following out 



