PROP. J. L. RUSSELL'S ADDRESS. 239 



In saying this, I by no means wish to depreciate the intellect- 

 ual standing of the farmers of Massachusetts, or of my neigh- 

 bors in Plymouth County. I only ask of them a deeper interest 

 in the welfare of their calling. You are associated for mutual 

 improvement. Your society becomes a lyceum, which holds an 

 annual meeting where each may learn something valuable. 

 Much more can be done. It can be shown, by science, how 

 much more profitable the cultivation of less land is, and what are 

 the hidden sources of wealth in even your most barren spots of 

 earth. To this result, many of you, doubtless, have long ago ar- 

 rived. The judicious application of manure on smaller portions 

 of your farms, has proved how much better agriculture is un- 

 derstood now, than formerly. The several better modes of pre- 

 paring the soil, the improvement in tools, the labor-saving ma- 

 chines, the feeding of stock, and other minutiae familiar to you, 

 are, in a great degree, the result of the application of science. 

 For these, you are indebted to books ; and the library which ac- 

 cumulates from year to year on your shelves, indicates how 

 much your occupation is connected with the culture of the 

 mind. 



What is there needed to place agriculture among the sciences, 

 but similar institutions to prepare its candidates for such honor- 

 able toil and enterprise ] All previous action has been the fol- 

 lowing in the steps of custom, and of doing what has been done 

 before. We have academies and colleges to educate our chil- 

 dren to become fit for other pursuits of life ; yes, even for the 

 cruel and unnatural trade of war, a national expenditure is wast- 

 ed in teaching and training. We have excellent institutions to 

 rear, into efficient instructors for our public schools, our young 

 men and young women; but where the State school for the in- 

 struction in that branch of human industry and skill, under whose 

 auspices the olive- wreath of Peace buds and blooms, and which 

 scatters untold blessings all around? The application of chem- 

 istry to manufactures, encourages new efforts in their pursuits; 

 but where the farmer's son, who seeks to know how the feld- 

 spar of his father's granite boulders can be decomposed into 

 efficient nutriment to the soil 1 The diseases which infest the 

 grain, and which lay waste your hopes, are known and under- 



