244 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



and but little improved and the road less improved. In 

 fact it appears as though the settlers of that region con- 

 sider it a total loss to work upon the highway — at all 

 events they build but few monuments to prove the 

 contrary. 



As I progressed south, I became more and more sen- 

 sible of the effects of the severe drouth. In many places 

 corn will not yield a bushel to the acre, and pastures and 

 meadows, where such things happen to exist, would burn 

 like tow. 



There is a great defect in agricultural knowledge in 

 this part of the world, or we should find more attention 

 paid to the cultivation of grass and stock. Around Indi- 

 anapolis, there are some slight indications of improve- 

 ment in this respect. But the fact that an agricultural 

 paper was not adequately supported at that place, proves 

 that the country is more rich in soil than any thing 

 else. 1 It is painful to learn that the agricultural society 

 at the seat of government of such a state as Indiana, 

 after struggling through a brief existence, now sleeps 

 too sound to be awakened by the ordinary cries of a 

 community suffering for the want of a better system of 

 agricultural education. 2 



1 See ante, 213, for a note on J. S. Willets, editor of the Indiana 

 Fanner. 



'In 1835 the General Assembly passed An Act for the encour- 

 agement of Agriculture, which set up a state board of five mem- 

 bers appointed by the governor for five-year terms, and provided 

 a formidable list of duties but no appropriation. The act provided 

 that there should be held every December in Indianapolis, a meet- 

 ing of the state board and delegates from the county societies, "to 

 be known as the annual meeting of the state agricultural society 

 of Indiana." Laivs of Indiana, 1834-35 (general), 90-91. Willets, 

 in the Indiana Farmer, n. s. 1:161 (January, 1841), said on the 

 subject: "Five years have now elapsed since the passage of the 

 law and the appointment of the state board. The board com- 

 menced their duties with a promptitude that deserves the praise 

 of the community, and would have continued in active operation, 

 had only a small sum been appropriated" to defray expenses. The 

 February issue of the Indiana Farmer, n. s. 1:177-78, reported a 





