276 HENRY HILL GOODELL 



At a meeting of the Board, January 25, 1861, Colonel 

 Wilder presented the following resolution, which was unan- 

 imously adopted : — 



Resolved, That this Board approve of the Manual of 

 Agriculture, submitted by its authors, Messrs. Geo. B. 

 Emerson and Charles L. Flint, and recommend its publica- 

 tion by those gentlemen as a work well adapted for use in 

 the schools of Massachusetts. 



And at a meeting of the Board, January 17, 1862, on 

 motion of Mr. James S. Grinnell, it was 



Resolved, That a committee of three, consisting of Messrs. 

 Joseph White, Charles C. Sewall, and Henry H. Peters, be 

 requested to represent the merits of the Manual of Agri- 

 culture to the committee of the Legislature on education, 

 on the order "To consider the expediency of including the 

 elements of agriculture among the branches to be taught in 

 all the public schools in which the school committee deem 

 it expedient." 



As a result of this action, the Legislature of 1862, by 

 Chapter 7, provided that "agriculture shall be taught, by 

 lectures or otherwise, in all the public schools in which the 

 school committee deem it expedient." 



But it must not be imagined for a moment that all was 

 plain sailing. There were to be found, even as now, those 

 who sneered at book knowledge, or doubted the expediency 

 of any such measure. Hon. Amasa Walker did not hesitate 

 to say, in an address before the Worcester South Agricul- 

 tural Society: "Farmers are the great mass of the people, 



