126 HAMPSHIRE, FRANKLIN AND 



Valley, for instruction in the various departments of agricultural 

 science. 



He spoke at considerable length upon this proposition, and 

 was followed by other gentlemen in favor of the same object. 

 Some doubts, however, were expressed whether an agricultural 

 school, reared by the patronage of the state, would be so useful 

 as one established by private munificence. 



From the reports of committees, the following selections are 

 made : — 



Domestic Manufactures. 



The committee, though not able to speak of the comparative 

 merits of this and former exhibitions, are persuaded that there 

 has been no relapse from any preexisting attainment of skill in 

 the various manufactures offered. Under the impetus which 

 New England industry has of late years been acquiring in this 

 direction, it would seem paradoxical to suppose that there can 

 be any sensible decline in the inventive department of manu- 

 factures — the invention of new machinery and new processes — 

 or in the improved fabrication of the product itself, until the 

 time shall come when, in the general vicissitude of things, New 

 England genius and energy shall have migrated to other lands. 

 But the twilight of that declining day, we are persuaded, is yet 

 very far hence ; neither will its shadows prevail until one and 

 another city, whose foundations have not yet felt the hammer, 

 shall spring up, and, full-armed with their "weaver's beam," con- 

 tend with the elder Manchester, Leeds, and Spitalfields, for 

 amicable mastery, in all the known markets of the globe. 



The signs of the times all clearly point that way. The selfish 

 period of New England manufactures, and of New England 

 manufacturers, is giving place to the liberal period. Our opu- 

 lent manufacturers have, all at once, become stricken with a 

 favoritism for the endowment of seats of learning, as well as 

 sites of mills; and, at the same time and at an equal pace with 

 new machinery, are applying propelling powers to education and 

 the higher arts. This is well, and is but the just tribute of suc- 

 cessful men to the true sources of success. It is no new idea, 



