90 



PROF. SHEPARD ON AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. 



selves for agricultural pursuits. It would 

 be a safety-valve to the college, now dis- 

 proportionately thronged, and would some- 

 times free it of a youth, whose frolicsome 

 career betrays, that it was not purely intel- 

 lectual occupation for which nature intend- 

 ed him, but rather, that admirable combi- 

 nation of hand-work with head-work, which 

 the farm so well supplies. 



And besides the improved methods of 

 husbandry, which would be likely to grow 

 out of such an institution, may we not rea- 

 sonably calculate upon its affording impor- 

 tant aid in contending with those diseases, 

 to which the most important plants and 

 fruits seem liable, as the result of long, 

 artificial cultivation. Consider for a mo- 

 ment, the present position of society from 

 the threatened loss of the potato crop. 

 Here is a disease in the tuber of this plant, 

 that thus far, defies all scrutiny. We have 

 neither found its cause nor its remedy. 

 And yet, as in a time of pestilence among 

 men, few are so absurd as to look for miti- 

 gation or relief, except from the resources 

 of science ; so here, the most obtuse are 

 probably convinced, that our only hope is 

 in a similar direction. And what a splen- 

 did gift would it be, if science shall be able 

 to restore to us the independence we pos- 

 sessed in this plant, prior to the year 1840! 

 For the potato is a vegetable, which the 

 rich man knows not how to forego ; and 

 one, which places the poor man above want. 

 With a shelter from the weather, and one 

 or two acres of ground to plant with this 

 tuber, man may subsist at almost any dis- 

 tance from the miller, the baker, the butch- 

 er, and I may almost add, the doctor. It 

 suits all tastes, flourishes in nearly all 

 climates, and is eminently nutritious and 

 healthful. Its cultivation demands but lit- 

 tle labor, and when the earth has ripened 

 the tubers, they are harvested without trou- 

 ble, and cooked without expense. A few 

 faggots in summer will boil them, and in 

 winter the necessary heat is supplied with- 

 out expense. There is no waste of time in 

 the processes of milling, sifting, kneading, 

 baking, seasoning, jointing or carving. 

 There is nothing deficient nor superfluous 

 in a well boiled potato. As soon as it is 

 cooked, it opens by chinks, lets fall its thin 

 pellicle upon the platter, and with a little 



salt, butter or milk, is ready for the unfas- 

 tidious appetite of the hungry man. Start 

 not back with surprise, at the idea of sub- 

 sisting upon the potato alone, ye who think 

 it necessary to load your tables with all the 

 dainty viands of the market, with fish, flesh 

 and fowl, seasoned with oils and spices, 

 and eaten perhaps with wines, — start not 

 back, I say, with feigned disgust, until you 

 are able to display in your own pampered 

 persons, a firmer muscle, a more beau ideal 

 outline, and a healthier red, than the pota- 

 to-fed peasantry of Ireland and Scotland 

 once showed you, as you passed their cabin 

 doors ! No ; the chemical physiologist will 

 tell you, that the well ripened potato, when 

 properly cooked, contains every element, 

 that man requir s for nutrition; and in the 

 best proportions, in which they are found in 

 any plant whatever. There is the abound- 

 ing supply of starch, for enabling him to 

 maintain the process of breathing, and for 

 generating the necessary warmth of body ; 

 there is the nitrogen for contributing to the 

 growth and renovation of organs ; the lime 

 and the phosphorus for the bones, and all 

 the salts which a healthy circulation de- 

 mands. In fine, the potato may well be 

 called the universal plant ; and the disease 

 under which it now labors, is therefore, an 

 universal calamity. If any agricultural in- 

 stitution should ever be so fortunate as to 

 make us acquainted with the means of 

 controlling it, its name would quickly rank 

 by the side of the proudest universities ; 

 and if the great discovery should proceed 

 from a single individual, his name would 

 live, when those of the greatest generals 

 and conquerors, have become as uncouth 

 and strange to human utterance, as their 

 deeds were unfriendl}'- and opposed to hu- 

 man happiness. 



It is indeed a pleasing task, to anticipate 

 the glories of the new day of improvement 

 and success, which is dawning upon the 

 cultivators of the soil. Already has the 

 era of amelioration arrived. The number 

 and the zeal of associations, like yours, are 

 significant omens. The results before and 

 around us, are most encouraging; and the 

 high standard of improvement everywhere 

 visible, is a sure presage of ultimate tri- 

 umph. A new vigor has been infused 

 into the farmer's life ; and though an old 



