472 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



of the Commonwealth to embark in such an enterprise, and ex- 

 pend her capital and devote her energies to such a purpose. 

 No one doubts the ability of Massachusetts, if she choose to 

 endow an institution for the education of her sons in ap^ricul- 

 ture, that shall as far exceed, in all that gives life and efficacy 

 and practical value, theprincely institution of Cirencester, in 

 England, or the more renowned and more useful Hofwyl 

 School of Fellenburg, in Switzerland, as English enterprise is 

 wont to exceed ours in the magnificent scale on which it is 

 always projected, and in the sluggish pace at which it usually 

 moves ; or as that of Switzerland may surpass ours in the high 

 toned and transcendental schemes which pervade her every 

 undertaking. To all this Massachusetts is abundantly able. 

 But she will not enter into it readily. She will consider, 

 contemplate, and more than that, like her Yankee children 

 she will calculate and reckon some time, before she will em- 

 bark in this undertaking with a soul that shall make suc- 

 cess certain. All this is well. No more important under- 

 taking can enlist the energies of this Commonwealth, and 

 she will do well to count all the cost. She has done much, 

 it is true — no State has done more — to add lustre and real 

 glory to the American name. Her public works, her public 

 charities, her seminaries of learning, her institutions for the 

 reform of the erring, and the punishment of the incorrigible 

 — all bear testimony at once to her noble heart and liberal 

 hand. Eyes has she been to the blind, ears to the deaf, and 

 the dumb have learned to lisp her name and her charities in the 

 same breath. Her munificence has lifted to the light of reason 

 the veil that darkens the desolate mind of the lost and wander- 

 ing lunatic ; and at her table have fed, till they no longer hun- 

 gered, the beggared outcasts of the old world. But there is 

 still other great and noble work for her to perform. There is 

 yet another high duty to her own sons, she must sooner or 

 later discharge. Home and household are not to be forgotten 

 in yielding to the- behests of an universal charity. When she 

 not only sees, but feels, that amidst all her munificence lavished 

 upon the Objects of desert or of favor around her, that her own 

 soil is growing poorer and poorer every year — while those who 

 consume her products are daily multiplying on her hands, she 



