52 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



loss to the parent — if it is a loss to the neighborhood — it is a 

 gain to the whole. 



Now I believe, with our friend Dodge, that there is in every 

 living man a love of nature, if you can only waken it. I believe 

 if you open to him the path of success, and wealth, and honor, 

 and he achieves them all, he longs for the earth again, he longs 

 for the homestead ; and like your Pickering, your Lowell and 

 your Buell, he returns to that first love, and by example and 

 teaching influences the race. We owe to those men' how much 

 more than to a world of practice, however good it might be, of 

 which you would see and hear very little, and which could not 

 quicken the multitude like the record of that practice, intelli- 

 gently presented to the minds of the people. I believe in agri- 

 culture ; I believe that Massachusetts has it a part of her mission 

 to elevate the agriculture of our country ; and I believe that 

 part of this education has come from this very impoverishment 

 of the land, which has made it necessary ; just as in the future 

 it will be seen that this great rebellion, which seemed about to 

 destroy the Union, was' necessary to show us our weak points 

 and establish our Union on enduring foundations, and with 

 more perfect guarantees for the liberties of our children. Prov- 

 idence orders all these things in this way ; and I have never lost 

 my faith in that love of nature which is inherent in all men. I 

 think I should mistrust that man who professed not to have a 

 love of nature ; I should think him "fit for treasons, stratagems 

 and spoils." 



As to the connection of this Board with the college, I confess 

 I do not have any fear. I believe that if we undertake to 

 interfere with its management in any way, to dictate the method, 

 we should do mischief inevitably ; but, as our worthy president 

 has said, he comes to us for that aid and counsel which he has 

 been with us long enough to know he will be sure to get 

 according to our ability. He knows that when this matter 

 of the establishment of the Agricultural College, as a separate 

 institution or as connected with Harvard College, was debated 

 in the Board of Agriculture, there was but one uniform 

 expression, and that was, that wo should take it up like an 

 infant in arms, and nurse it into existence by our best efforts, 

 without interference from the college. We have eminent men 

 in this Board, capable of doing great service to the college in 



