SECRETARY'S REPORT. 29 



operations. Notwithstanding the opposition which the founders 

 of this Board encountered, and which has continued in smaller 

 degree to the present time, it has established a community of 

 feeling among the farmers of Massachusetts, which has already 

 served to rouse a spirit of investigation, and has given increased 

 importance to their affairs ; as a pioneer in the work of agricul- 

 tural education, it has done its work well. 



It is now peculiarly gratifying that the efforts which have 

 been made here, are but preliminary to larger and more efficient 

 operations elsewhere in the same direction. The addition of a 

 thorough system of agricultural education, to the many liberally 

 endowed institutions of learning in the State, cannot fail, if 

 properly directed, to be of vast service to our people. It is 

 " good learning " which lies at the foundation of our social and 

 civil existence. MVe have among us no dependent class, upon 

 whom is thrown the drudgery of life, and who are enveloped 

 with a cloud of ignorance, that they may be the more willing 

 servants. The same intelligence which conducts our schools, 

 and guides our hearts, and orders our public affairs, and erects 

 successive monuments of wealth and prosperity, enters into our 

 workshops, and finds occupation on our farms. There may be 

 good farmers in Japan, who are poorly educated, and poorly 

 rewarded for their toil. There may be good cultivators in 

 England, who receive their direction from a superior class in 

 society, and know nothing beyond the details of a subordinate 

 position. There may be an industrious rural population in 

 France, who belong to the soil and to the government. But 

 these things cannot be in Massachusetts. Amid the general 

 elevation of mind here, in the universal diffusion of knowledge, 

 in the eager spirit of inquiry, which form the great character- 

 istic of our people, it is impossible to deprive one great class of 

 our people of that knowledge which belongs especially to them, 

 without striking a blow at the interest which they represent. 

 From the great law of popular intelligence, which the citizens 

 of a popular government have laid down for themselves, the 

 farmer cannot be exempt. The possession and improvement of 

 freehold, be it large or small, demand the exercise of more 

 cultivated faculties, than mere human instincts. In a society 

 like ours, each farm, is as it were, an independent sovereignty, 

 and every farmer is the arbiter of his own fortune. And his 



