FARMEES' INSTITUTES. 463 



they can furnish in the form of scientific principles wrouglit out and made 

 manifest in the various kinds of implements and machinery. Tliesc machines 

 appeal to the judgment as the application of scientific principles to the secur- 

 ing of a practical result. An individual, it is true, may fail to see the principles 

 involved, or he may doubt the efficiency of tlie machine; he may call it a 

 new fangled notion and prefer to work in the old way, but he only thus con- 

 fesses his ignorance as he is likely to be afterwards forced to admit when he has 

 seen it operate on the farm of his more enterprising neighbor. 



It has been by the most rigid and persistent application of scientific principles 

 that we have come into possession of the improved breeds of cattle, horses, 

 sheep, hogs and poultry, whose well developed and symmetrical forms make 

 them the objects of admiration at our agricultural fairs. If a farmer, im- 

 pressed with the vast superiority of these animals as compared with tlie scrubs 

 he has been raising, buys a pair and takes them home, but ignorant of those 

 scientific or physiological laws, attention to which originally secured the im- 

 provement, in the neglect of these laws he soon finds a marked deterioration 

 in the progeny of his improved stock. In his disappointment at the result of 

 the investment, he pronounces it a humbug and a failure, whereas the failure 

 is attributable directly to his ignorance. Whatever sins of omission or of 

 commission agricultural societies may have laid to their charge, they have at 

 all events accomplished a very important work in awakening a more general 

 interest in agricultural and other productive industries. In bringing before 

 the eyes of the community the best results attained in the improvement of 

 all kinds of domestic animals, fruits and cereals, also the progress in the 

 mechanic arts as applied to farming implements; they have enlisted the sym- 

 pathy of men and women of intelligence and thought, and raised labor to high, 

 position of honor and respectability. Make your local society all that it can 

 he made as an educator and exponent of the most advanced ideas in agriculture 

 and domestic embellishment and comfort. Guard it against all that would de- 

 tract from its noble aim and depreciate its real value. Let its managers bear 

 in mind that it is neither a horse race iior a circus, but an agricultural exhibi- 

 tion, and it will be patronized and upheld, not by idlers and jockeys, but by 

 the industrious, frugal, enterprising men and women of the county, and the 

 progress you exhibit from year to year will exert a wide and lasting influence 

 that will be seen and felt in the order and management of many a farm, and 

 in the increased attractions and adornment of many a rural home. 



In looking around to discern the signs of the times, I do not know of any- 

 thing more full of promise for the future or more clearly indicative of present 

 progress than the holding each winter in different parts of the State a series of 

 "Farmer's Institutes."' Attended as these meetings are by the most intelli- 

 gent and wide-awake farmers in the vicinity, and by the professors of our 

 Agricultural College, where each takes part in the presentation of lectures and 

 essays, and participates in the discussions that follow the reading of these 

 papers, the practical farmers and the men of scientific knowledge are brought 

 into closer and more frequent contact. 



Having attended most of the Institutes that liave been held under the direc- 

 tion of the State Board of Agriculture, I can speak somewhat confidently of 

 the influence they are exerting. It used to be said that there was no kind of 

 meeting that interested so few of the farmers as a meeting for the discussion 

 of agricultural topics, and I suppose this was true at one time, but it is not so 

 now. With scarcely a single exception these institutes are largely attended by 



