viii ADVERTISEMENT. 



else concerns the great farming interests of the Common- 

 wealth. 



Authority might also be given to the board to employ, if 

 thought advisable, an agricultural chemist to make experiments, 

 to visit all parts of the State, analyze different soils, commu- 

 nicate information to the farmers, and obtain facts in regard to 

 adaptation of this science to practical agriculture. 



When this board had been in operation one or two years, 

 and its reports spread before the people, it is presumed that the 

 importance of a permanent and well endowed school would be 

 fully demonstrated, and the public mind well prepared to give 

 it a hearty and generous support. 



Reasoning from analogy, we conceive that the history of the 

 Massachusetts Board of Education, furnishes us with what we 

 may confidently expect would be the natural course of things 

 in regard to agricultural education. The establishment of that 

 board gave new life and vigor to the common schools of the 

 State, brought them into a regular system, established uniform 

 returns, elicited all needful statistics, and as a matter of course, 

 exhibited the great deficiency which existed in well qualified 

 teachers. This gave rise to those normal schools, which have 

 now come to be regarded as among the most indispensable in- 

 stitutions of the Commonwealth. So we think it would be, if 

 a Board of Agriculture were established. Its investigations 

 would disclose such a want of scientific knowledge amongst 

 the farmers generally, that the necessity of a grand normal 

 SCHOOL. OF AGRICULTURE, would bc deeply felt and no time 

 would be lost, or effort spared to secure the speedy establish- 

 ment of an institution, commensurate with the wants of the 

 community. 



