76 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the foremost powers of Europe. He had the sagacity to perceive that 

 this could only be done by developing in every practicable way the 

 natural resources of the realm. Accordingly, though his kingdom was 

 small and poor, he s^et apart as much as thirty-two million dollars a 

 year for the purpose of improving its agricultural condition. His suc- 

 cessors followed his example, and the development of agricultural in- 

 struction has steadily progressed down to the present day. Just after 

 the battle of Jena, for example, when Prussia had been reduced to about 

 one-half its former territory and population, the famous school at 

 Moeglin was founded and put under the direction of the celebrated 

 savants Thaer and Wolff. After the revolution of 1848 the department 

 of agriculture was raised to the dignity of a separate ministry, and 

 from that time to the present the policy of the government has led to 

 the constant enlargement of existing schools and to the frequent estab- 

 lishment of new ones. The example of Prussia was followed by other 

 states. The far-famed academy of Tharandt w^as founded in 1811, in 

 the midst of the turmoil incident to the Napoleonic wars. In a similar 

 manner, after the battle of Sadowa, the same government, that of Sax- 

 ony, established the agricultural college of the University of Leipsic 



It would be difficult to determine the date of the first organized effort 

 to found a school of agriculture in North America. As early as 1794. 

 a definite educational scheme was outlined by a committee of the Phila- 

 delphia Society for Promoting Agricultlre. At a meeting of this soci- 

 ety on January 21 of that year, it was 



''Agreed, That Mr. Bordley, Mr. Clymer, Mr. Peters and Mr. Pickering 

 be a Committee to i)repare Outlines of a Plan for establishing a State; 

 Society for the Promotion of Agriculture; connecting with it the Educa- 

 tion of Youth in the Knowledge of that most important Art, while they 

 are acquiring other useful knowledge suitable for the agricutural Citizens 

 of the State: 



"And a Petition to the Legislature, with a view to obtaining an act of 

 incorporation." 



A week later "the outlines of a plan" was presented to the society, it 

 having been brought into the committee by Mr. Peters. The Legislature 

 was to be asked to incorporate the proposed society. Details of mem- 

 bership and organization w^ere included in the report or application. 

 Agricultural information was to be disseminated in whatever manner 

 the legislature should think best, ''whether by endowing professorships, 

 to be annexed to the University of Pennsylvania and the College of 

 Carlisle and other seminaries of learning, for the purpose of teaching 

 the chemical, philosophical and elementary parts of the theory of agri- 

 culture; or by adding to the funds of the society, increase their ability 

 to proi)agate a knowledge of the subject, and stimulate, by premiums 

 and other incentives, the exertions of the agricultural citizens; or 

 whether by a combination of these means the welfare of the state may be 

 more effectually promoted." County societies were to be created, with 

 *'county schoolmasters" as secretaries; "and the school houses the places 

 of meeting and the repositories of their transactions, models, etc. The 

 legislature may enjoin on these schoolmasters the combination of the 

 subject of agriculture with the other parts of education. This may be 

 easily effected by introducing as school books those on this subject, and 

 thereby making it familiar to their pupils." "When the funds of the 

 society increase sufficiently to embrace the object, it will perfect all 



