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EDUCATOR 



During the last decade of the eighteenth century the 

 attention of many thoughtful and far-seeing men was di- 

 rected to creating a more intelligent culture of the soil. This 

 resulted in the formation of the Massachusetts Society for 

 the Promotion of Agriculture, in 1796. Through the influ- 

 ence of this organization, societies of a similar purpose were 

 organized in the various counties of the Commonwealth, 

 and cattle-shows and horse-shows became a feature of the 

 industrial life of the people. Public-spirited and wealthy 

 men offered prizes for the best products of the farm, and 

 subscribed money to collect and diffuse information on 

 matters pertaining to agriculture. 



The printing-press was called into requisition, and on the 

 2nd of August, 1818, "The American Farmer" was pub- 

 lished at Baltimore; three years later came "The Plough 

 Boy" (spelled Plow Boy), published at Albany; the follow- 

 ing year "The New England Farmer" appeared in Boston; 

 and soon papers devoted to this subject appeared in many 

 localities. As the nineteenth century advanced men began 

 to talk of schools of agriculture. Prominent educators, like 

 Edward Hitchcock of Amherst, a man of great practical 

 wisdom, advocated the teaching of this great branch of in- 

 dustry in academies and colleges, and as early as 1843 the 

 Trustees of Amherst College appointed Charles U. Shep- 

 ard, Professor of Agricultural Chemistry and Mineralogy. 



