REPORT OF THE 



&quot; Thus the total expense of establishing the school, and of 

 maintaining it the first year, is estimated at 880,950, and the 

 income, after the first year, it is believed, will be amply suf 

 ficient to defray all expenses. Yet to meet contingencies 

 that may occur, and to make up for any deficiency in the esti 

 mate, the committee think that an appropriation of 8100,000, 

 the surplus to be invested for the benefit of the institution, 

 will ensure usefulness and permanency to the school, and 

 prove amply sufficient to meet all its wants. This sum, if 

 equalized among the population of the State, would operate 

 as a tax of about jive cents to each inhabitant. 



&quot; Your committee have thus complied with the requisitions 

 of the society, in submitting the plan of an Agricultural 

 School, and an estimate of the expense necessary to establish 

 and put the same into successful and permanent operation. 

 It only remains for them to state their opinion of its utility. 



&quot; The agriculture of a country affords the best criterion of 

 its prosperity. Whether we compare kingdoms, states, coun 

 ties, districts, or farms, the condition of this branch of labour, 

 which they severally exhibit, is a sure index, not only of the 

 pecuniary, but of its moral condition. It is no less an axiom 

 founded in truth, that agriculture prospers or languishes, in 

 proportion to the science and skill of the men who manage its 

 labours. It is not the natural fertility of the soil^ so much as 

 the intelligence and industry of those who till it, which gives 

 to husbandry its interests and its rewards. The man who 

 devotes the energies of a highly cultivated mind, to the im 

 provement of this primitive and all-important branch of labour, 

 is a public benefactor. Cincinnatus did more to immortalize 

 his name, and to command our applause, by his love of rural 

 labours, than by his military exploits. Washington, amid all 

 the honours that irradiated his brow, sought his highest plea 

 sures in the business and retirement of the farm. And it was 

 the first remark of our present chief magistrate, to the writer, 

 after introduction, that he would not forego the pleasures of 

 the farm for all the honours and emoluments that this nation 

 could confer upon him. Education enables man to appreciate 

 the wonderful provisions which God has made for his happi 

 ness in rural life, and imparts to him the ability of diffusing 

 instruction and happiness to multitudes around him. 



