10 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



became imperatively necessary ; and when the country meet- 

 ings of this Board were established, the agricultural com- 

 munity was just stepping out of the bonds of mere traditional 

 agriculture into the work of careful and scientific agriculture, 

 — that wbich from that day to this has constituted the suc- 

 cess of farming in this Commonwealth. In all those States 

 where the population has largely increased, where the local 

 markets have multiplied, and where the demand has been 

 made for the most accurate and careful system of farming, 

 it is the application of economical and scientific methods 

 which enables a farmer to secure a competence for his 

 family, and to keep himself in line with the progressive 

 thought and work of the country. 



Now, it is well for us to consider exactly what application 

 we can make of all the scientific and careful investigations, 

 all the nice and delicate inventions, to the occupation to 

 which we are devoted. The time was when you could tickle 

 the soil, and the harvest would rush into your arms ; but 

 that time is past. The selection of crops with great skill, 

 the application of fertilizers to the land, the choice of crops 

 that are appropriate to the local market, the management 

 of all the machinery of the farm, have become as much a 

 matter of care and attention as the management of cotton 

 and woollen mills and all their machinery, which have made 

 the Commonwealth what it is. The time has come, when, by 

 college and by board, by association of every description, 

 and by personal influence, the theory and practice of farm- 

 ing should be advanced ; when farming should be no longer 

 a tradition or a theory, but a careful and accurate system of 

 business, like all the rest of the business in this State in 

 which all are interested either as consumers or producers. 



The influence of these meetings upon the agricultural 

 mind of the Commonwealth, as I judge, has been to prepare 

 that mind for the reception of that systematic education to 

 which I have referred. The meetings themselves have been 

 highly creditable to the practical men who have attended. 

 The useful essays that have been delivered ; the careful dis- 

 cussions and well-drawn laws, drawn from experience ; the 

 application of all those rules by which farmers have suc- 

 ceeded, have been laid before the community through these 



