352 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, 



Resolved, That a Committee be appointed by the Board to 

 act as an examining Committee of the different classes of the 

 Agricultural College. 



This Committee was constituted by the appointment of Messrs. 

 Loring, Hyde and Saltonstall. 



Resolved, That the Secretary of the Board be instructed to 

 remove the State cabinet to the Agricultural College, when the 

 trustees of that institution indicate to him their readiness to 

 receive and care for the same. 



The State Cabinet was begun some years ago, with the design 

 of illustrating as completely as practicable, through the limited 

 means at command, the Natural History of this Commonwealth 

 in all its branches. It consists of many thousand specimens of 

 minerals, plants, fishes, reptiles, insects and birds, many of them 

 rare and difficult to obtain, all of which have been collected 

 within the State and arranged in a room connected with this 

 office at the State House. 



This collection has already accomplished a vast amount of 

 good, attracted the attention and secured the co-operation of a 

 large number of persons in all parts of the State, while, on the 

 other hand, it has offered facilities for study and observation to 

 those not specially conversant with the extent and variety of our 

 natural history, and has administered to a laudable and elevated 

 curiosity, and to the promotion of a taste for such studies 

 among the young. 



It is believed that in its present location, central and easily 

 accessible as it is, it may be seen and studied by a larger num- 

 ber of persons than in any other. But the increase of business, 

 and the increased wants of the various departments of the State 

 Government, have made it necessary to furnish additional office 

 accommodations and committee-rooms, and seem to require that 

 the room now occupied by the collection should be given up. If 

 the Cabinet is to be moved from its present position, it is emi- 

 nently proper that it should go where it may accomplish the 

 greatest amount of good — where its collections may be studied 

 and used ; and the Agricultural College, soon to go into 



