26 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



develop a national society of agriculture, which was de- 

 signed to foster, in turn, a national agricultural school 

 and journal. This project was one of the most interesting 

 of his career. The story of his initiation of this venture, 

 its gradual development and culmination in official or- 

 ganization at Washington, and its subsequent failure, is 

 covered in detail in the selections from his writings 

 which appear hereafter, and need not be dealt with at 

 length here. 1 



Robinson's pungent remarks on agricultural subjects, 

 spiced with homely wit and humor, brought him consid- 

 erable reputation as an orator. Beginning with 1840 he 

 gave numerous addresses in widely separated regions of 

 the country, at agricultural society meetings and fairs, 

 and before other organizations interested in farm topics. 

 The Union Agricultural Society at Chicago, the National 

 Society of Agriculture, already mentioned, the Agricul- 

 tural Society at La Porte, Indiana, the National Conven- 

 tion of Farmers, Gardeners, and Silk Culturists, at New 

 York City, the New York State Agricultural Society, the 

 state legislature at Richmond, Virginia, and Franklin 

 College in Tennessee, were among the organizations 

 which obtained information and entertainment from his 

 lectures. 



An Almanac sponsored by A. B. Allen & Company in 

 1850 was compiled by "Uncle Solon." A northern edi- 

 tion of this pamphlet, intended for farmers, and a south- 

 ern edition, designed for planters, were published sepa- 

 rately in New York in 1851. 2 



The desire to foster agricultural education was a driv- 

 ing force throughout Solon Robinson's career. He urged 



1 The Albany, New York, Cultivator, the Franklin Farmer and 

 Kentucky Farmer of Frankfort and Lexington, the Chicago Union 

 Agriculturist, Cincinnati Western Farmer and Gardener, Nashville 

 Agriculturist, Boston New England Farmer, Rochester New 

 Genesee Farmer, and Petersburg, Virginia, Farmers' Register, 

 are some of the agricultural periodicals in which the movement 

 was discussed by Robinson and other agricultural writers. 



3 American Agriculturist, 9:261 (August, 1850). 



