346 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the Commonwealth be requested to organize an annual meet- 

 ing for lectures and discussions, at such time and place as 

 may be convenient to each society; these meetings to' be 

 denominated " The Farmers' Institutes of Massachusetts." 



Having had some knowledge of the Teachers' Institutes 

 in the State, held under the superintendence of the secreta- 

 ries of the State Board of Education (which Board, this, in 

 its incipiency fti 1851, was designed to resemble somewhat), 

 I had been considering, at times, for some two or more years, 

 the propriety of holding meetings on a similar plan, under 

 the name of "Agricultural Institutes," with the secretary 

 of this Board at their head. I had conversed with quite a 

 number of gentlemen, in whose opinions on such a subject 

 I had confidence, and from whom were received words of 

 approval ; and our excellent secretary very kindly consented, 

 that if I would write out my views, and forward them to 

 him, he would lay them before the Board at the Annual 

 Meeting ; which he did. 



My proposition, in substance, was to hold meetings, at 

 proper intervals, in some place within the limits of each 

 agricultural society. As there are about thirty such socie- 

 ties represented in this Board, ten such meetings each year 

 would give one to each society once in three years. It was 

 not proposed to hold them as many days, nor to have any 

 thing like the number of lecturers, as at the Teachers' In- 

 stitutes. Two or three days were deemed sufficient, with 

 the secretary, or some one by him selected to arrange and 

 preside, and one or two other lecturers. It was proposed to 

 have very free discussions on the topics of the lectures, and 

 on subjects previously assigned, with speakers named. All 

 the farmers within the society's limits were to be reckoned 

 as members, and the public generally to be invited. Music, 

 when practicable, was to enliven the exercises. While it 

 was conceded that the Agricultural College was doing a 

 great and an important work, and should be amj^ly sustained, 

 it could not at present, perhaps never, supply the help to 

 the masses of the farmers in the State that would be secured 

 by such a sj^stem of meetings, because the latter would 

 bring important practical instruction down to their very 

 hearthstones. The only objection of any weight seemed to 

 be the expense ; but this, it was evident, must be compara- 



