272 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



would furnish laboratory facilities perhaps equal to those that 

 we have had. I trust that this resolution will pass. The very 

 fact that we have started here, and that other States are in- 

 quiring about the matter, makes it necessary that something- 

 should be done to relieve the director of this station from the 

 labor of answering those inquiries. If you knew the piles of 

 letters coming in all the time, saying, " We have got to do 

 something. What shall we do ? How much will it cost ? 

 What should be the equipment ?" you would realize what a 

 burden it is to answer them. I was looking at one of the 

 letters a short time ago, and I will venture to say that if 

 Prof. Johnson had answered all the inquiries which it con- 

 tained it would have required the labor of two or three weeks 

 on his part, and that of a clerk, to look up the information. 



Mr. Augur. A single word only. I imagine that when 

 this matter is brought up in the legislature there will be very 

 few who will seriously oppose an appropriation for the Experi- 

 ment Station, but a good many will ask, " Can't you make it 

 a little less?" The thought came up in my mind, "How 

 much do we pay for the military of our State ? " If 1 mistake 

 not, over a hundred thousand dollars per annum. How much 

 do we pay for the support of the insane ? Now, gentlemen, 

 we do not complain of these things, only if we can afford to 

 pay a hundred thousand dollars or more for the military of 

 our State, can we not afford to pay for the support of the 

 Experiment Station, and to do it liberally ? 



Mr. Webb. I want to put that in another light. We do 

 pay these expenses, we pay them freely ; and if w^e have to 

 pay them ought we not to surround ourselves with all the 

 protections which we can in order to enable us to pay them ? 



Mr. Bill. The point is, we want to make farming honor- 

 able, creditable, and profitable to our sons. In the year 1837, 

 in the West, I had many a time to figlit for the Nutmeg State, 

 and I would fight for her to-day; and when I hear of farmers 

 sending their sons West, and letting the fields of their native 

 State run up to brush, I am sorry, as a farmer, to hear of 

 such things. I have endeavored to instil a love of agriculture 



