STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 69 



&quot; It should be the policy of government, therefore, which 

 watches over the interest of all, to infuse into the labours of 

 husbandry, all the lights of science and knowledge to take 

 care to expand and elevate the minds of those who are to give 

 it efficiency and character, and to call forth skill and industry 

 by proffered rewards. With us these considerations possess 

 peculiar force. Our population and business are emphatically 

 agricultural, and every aid which is extended to this class 

 benefits, indirectly, every portion of the community. Agri 

 culture constitutes the fountains of the thousand rills, which, 

 swelling and traversing every part of the State, propel the 

 spindle and the hammer of the artisan and the manufacturer, 

 and finally, by their union, make up the mighty stream of com 

 merce which unceasingly flows into the Atlantic. 



&quot; That our agriculture is susceptible of improvement that 

 the products of its labours may be doubled, nay, quadrupled, 

 must be apparent to those who have compared our husbandry 

 with that of some European countries, or who have contrasted 

 at home the well-cultivated district or farm with those which 

 are badly managed. How is the desired amelioration to be 

 effected ? How can a better husbandry be so well promoted, 

 as by teaching it to our youth ? By sowing our seed in the 

 springtime of life ? Prejudice nowhere retains a stronger hold 

 than among farmers who have approached or passed the me 

 ridian of life. While some retain old practices, for want of 

 confidence in their knowledge to guide them in better ones, 

 others lack the first requisites to improvement a conscious 

 ness that their system is not the most useful ; while not a few 

 are influenced, in their hostility to public means of improve 

 ment, by the desire to keep things to their own level. If we 

 would efficiently improve this great branch of business, and 

 elevate its character, as well as the character of those who are 

 engaged in its operations, we must do what universal expe 

 rience has shown to be the only sure method. We must lay 

 our foundation in the rising generation we must teach the 

 young idea how to shoot we must instruct the head to help 

 the hands. Our physical and mental powers are twin sisters ; 

 they lighten each other s labour, and mutually impart a zest to 

 each other s enjoyments. And as it is becoming common to 



