FAKMEKS' INSTITUTES. 307 



stead, reads in his moniing paper an account of our annual production of 

 six hundred inilHons feet of lumber and eight hundred thousand barrels of 

 salt, must not take for granted tliat our soil is eitlier too piny or too salty to 

 produce cereals and vegetables. Tiie ligiit of day then, having already entered 

 where the giant oak and whispering pine once stood in their native majesty, 

 and our county having already been accorded a place in tlie sisterhood of agri- 

 cultural counties of our State, it certainly now behooves us to avail ourselves 

 of every benefit and all the immunities that we, under tlie law, as an agricult- 

 ural community, can receive. Prominent and foremost among those advanta- 

 ges is the information and advice we acquire from gatherings of the character 

 we are here to organize. 



The Avisdom and foresight of those who framed the organic laws of our 

 State, penetrated the necessity and influence of "farmers' institutes," courses 

 of lectures and readings and interchange of opinions, by which adults as well 

 as youths might acquire instruction in agriculture, and to this end our State 

 constitution has provided that our State Legislature should encourage the pro- 

 motion of intellectual, scientific and agricultural improvements, and that the 

 Legislature should at as early a day as practicable "provide for the establish- 

 ment of an agricultural school;" and we find that in obedience to this con- 

 stitutional injunction a "State agricultural school" was established during 

 the legislative session of 1855, now known as the " State Agricultural Col- 

 lege," and the design of which has been and is to furnish thorough instruc- 

 tion in agriculture and the sciences connected therewith, and " to teach such 

 branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts." 



Under this original act the Agricultural College and farm were located, and 

 the institution was placed under the control and management of the State 

 Board of Education. For 1861, however, an amendment was made to this 

 law and provision was made for a State Board of Agriculture to whicli the con- 

 trol and management were transferred as a distinct body corjiorate, with all the 

 powers usual to ordinary corporations. 



By the provisions of the law the State Board of Agriculture is authorized 

 to institute winter courses of lectures, and instruction for others than college 

 students, subject to such rules and regulations as the board prescribes. 



In the exercise of this authority or privilege the agricultural board, aided 

 by able members of the college faculty, commenced giving series of outside 

 lectures in different parts of our State some three or four years ago, and the 

 reader wlio has paid attention to the proceedings of tiiese institutes found him- 

 self richly rewarded for his pains. 



Our county, then having received recognition as an agricultural field for 

 these honorable scientific missionaries, and they being gentlemen of eminent 

 learning and wide practical experience in scientific subjects, about which the 

 great majority of us are comparatively ignorant (but some knowledge of which 

 would seem to be very necessary to tliose of us who pursue a farm life) ; let us 

 give them a warm and cordial welcome, in a manner in which I feel warranted 

 in saying they will appreciate; namely: by a full attendance at every one of 

 these morning, afternoon and evening sessions. 



No one who is the possessor of a single city lot in any of our cities, can 

 afford to say that he or she has no interest in these institutes. It does not 

 require much of a prophet to determine that much of our future as cities, de- 

 pends upon our agricultural developments. Our manufactories are diminish- 

 ing in number rather than increasing, and at two dollars per thousand feet for 



