40 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



agricultural associations in Massachusetts as may be agreed upon 

 by said committee. 



At a meeting of the Board, Jan. 25, 1861, Colonel Wilder 

 presented the following resolution, which was unanimously 

 adopted : — 



Resolved, That this Board approve of the Manual of Agriculture, 

 submitted by its authors, Messrs. Geo. B. Emerson and Charles 

 L. Plint, and recommend its publication by those gentlemen as a 

 work well adapted for use in the schools of Massachusetts. 



And at a meeting of the Board, Jan. 17, 1802, 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 re- 

 quested to represent the merits of the Manual of Agriculture 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, 

 and how can they, from their very numbers, be educated at 

 college? And then the expense could never be encountered 

 by the farming interest, nor could the sons be spared from 

 the farms, nor would it be desirable to so break up their 

 habits as farmers as to put them under one, two or more 

 years' tuition at college. Besides, colleges are made for 

 professional men, not for the people, and their mission 

 never was and never will be to educate the million." Mr. 

 Jackson said that if a l)oy learned to read, write, cipher and 



