AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 475 



down from crag to crag, gamboling along the hill-sides, and 

 " singing down the narrow glen," — the hoar frost that puts in 

 bonds the earth, and the snow which covers it like wool, — all 

 are eloquent to the enlightened, but dumb to the stupid. Earth 

 opens her secrets to the inquiring mind, — and the studious 

 farmer, as he bends over his daily labor, reads the deep and 

 hidden mysteries of creation. The winds, the rain, the storms, 

 the tempests, all are to him so many preachers, lifting his rev- 

 erent mind from the contemplation of nature, up to nature's 

 God. 



Gentlemen, I have detained you too long, and, I fear, with 

 too little profit. I have not attempted, for I have not felt 

 competent, to instruct any one of you in the practical details 

 of farming. I have not discoursed of the qualities of ma- 

 nures, of the improvement of your stock, or of the culture of 

 your fruit. These are topics which belong to the practical 

 farnier, and although fully impressed with the importance of all 

 these, and the value of all information respecting them, I am 

 also conscious of my own infirmity. I have sought the rather, 

 on this occasion, to draw your attention to your position and 

 duties, and to the radical defects and short-comings in all our 

 struggles to elevate the standard of agriculture in this Com- 

 monwealth. I have also attempted to point out the remedy to 

 be a systematic, a thorough, and a liberal professional educa- 

 tion for the farmer, furnished by the State, cooperating with 

 private munificence. And on an institution thus founded and 

 endowed, I have endeavored to ground your hopes for the re- 

 generation of the soil of the Commonwealth, and for the proper 

 elevation and true dignity of her sons. 



And permit me, in conclusion, to add, that it lies with your- 

 selves, under a gracious Providence, to say when this golden 

 age shall be ushered in. For though you cannot build this 

 great temple with your own hands, yet you may give tone to 

 the policy of our common government, which can lay its founda- 

 tions deep as perpetuity, and spread its ample arches broad as 

 the land. You are, in the multitude, as well as in the individ- 

 ual, the architects of your own fortune. 



You may, by indifference, suffer the half-finished walls of this 

 temple to tumble down in neglect, or rise, if at all, dispropor- 



