36 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



in course of time self-sustaining branch schools might be estab- 

 lished in each county, whose teachers might be provided by the 

 college — not large and expensive establishments, but economi- 

 cal practical schools, where the most important branches could 

 be taught, and the most common business of the farm con- 

 ducted under a competent superintendent. During the winter 

 months, lecturers could be furnished by the college, at the call 

 of associations established in the towns. This latter plan 

 would meet the wants of a large number of farmers, who could 

 not avail themselves of the privileges of the schools, and who 

 are always anxious to obtain reliable information, even amidst 

 the most pressing toil. The value of this mode of instruction 

 cannot be over-estimated. The most important suggestions 

 may be imparted in this manner, and carried into immediate 

 operation by the learner. We need oral teachings, coming 

 with the authority of a school in which all have confidence, 

 to supply a place which is now filled by the doubtful views of 

 those, who need light as much as their hearers. 



I have made these suggestions, not because it is a part of the 

 business of this Board to direct what has been committed to 

 other hands, but because I know the interest you must all feel 

 in a subject which has heretofore occupied so much of your 

 deliberations. I am sure that when the college proposed for 

 us is established, this body will be among the first to recognize 

 its usefulness and to feel its good effects. We all know how 

 deficient we are in positive agricultural knowledge, and how 

 valuable to us would be the light of science, in the conduct of 

 our discussions, and in the results of our observations. Feel- 

 ing as we do, how great a blessing an agricultural school 

 might have been to us, we cannot but expect, that through its 

 influence our successors will far excel ourselves, in performing 

 that duty which devolves upon the Board. 



It may be superfluous to urge upon the people of Massachu- 

 setts, the importance of education in all its ramifications, 

 considering what they have already done to bring useful knowl- 

 edge to the door of every cottage in the State. But it has so 

 happened, that while we have educated men for every walk in 

 life, — as theologians, and physicians, and lawyers, and mer- 

 chants, and mechanics, and clerks, — while we have filled our 

 cities with an intelligent people, we have educated our young 



