DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND ITS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



VOL. III. 



SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1851, 



NO. 8. 



RAYNOLDS & NOURSE, 

 Proprietors. 



OFFICE, QUINCY HALL, BOSTON. 



S. W. COLE, Editor. 



LEGISLATIVE AID TO AGRICULTURE. 



This subject has been under consideration by the 

 joint committee of the two branches of the Legis- 

 lature on agriculture, and their report will doubt- 

 less be before the public before this article is pub- 

 lished. As large sums of the public money have 

 been expended on colleges, and other professions 

 have received the principal benefit from them, there 

 should now be something done for the instruction of 

 farmers. 



Our colleges are open to farmers as well as to 

 other classes, but the instruction given in them is 

 not suitable to qualify a farmer for his calling, hence 

 but very few who persue farming as a main busi- 

 ness ever graduate at our colleges. We should 

 have some mode of imparting information to farm- 

 ers that is of a suitable character for their wants, 

 and the system should be such that it will be easily 

 accessible, and open to all, even the most humble 

 in pecuniary condition. 



But in urging the claims of farmers on theboun- 

 ty of the State, we would not found it on the igno- 

 rance of farmers, of which so much has been said 

 in our public discussions, and by orators at farmers' 

 festivals, but we would found their claims on the fact 

 that the State has given them only one talent,and they 

 have improved upon it, equal to others who have had 

 ten talents from the public chest; and as they have 

 gained ten talents from one, they should be made 

 ruler over many. 



We believe that the State in providing to en- 

 lighten farmers will not at first establish a school 

 or college with a pattern and experimental farm; 

 for it will be very expensive, and its operation in 

 the way of improvement upon the whole agricul- 

 tural community will be slow, therefore a failure 

 would be likely to result from an expensive establish- 

 ment in the beginning. The time may come when 

 a school or college and public farm may be neces- 

 sary, and the people generally prepared to bear the 

 expense, even if it be high. 



In our remarks on this subject at the State House, 



we suggested that as an economical and efficienj 

 mode of diffusing valuable practical information 

 among farmers, there should be a board constituted 

 of farmers well experienced in theircalling, withan 

 able agricultural chemist, who should collect, and 

 by proper mode diffuse all over the State the best 

 practical and scientific information on agriculture. 



Such a board, or one of a similar character, will, 

 we trust, be established. But as we understand that 

 some persons who take an interest in this cause 

 are very anxious to have the Governor, Lieut. Gov- 

 ernor, and Secretary of State, members of this board 

 ex officio, we do sincerely hope that no such arrange- 

 ment will be made; for it frequently happens that 

 the governor and other dignitaries of a State know 

 nothing about farming. Then why should the board 

 be encumbered with such men. Again it would be 

 connecting the board with political affairs, of which 

 it should be perfectly free. Before an election the 

 farming qualities of candidates would be a subject 

 of discussion, reproach and enconium, and some 

 candidates would be found digging in their potato 

 patch, or in their patch of thistles and vveeds, who 

 had hardly thought of using the hoe until they were 

 nominated for office, and we should have farmers 

 made up for the occasion at short notice; and those 

 who never knew much about crops, excepting in 

 consuming them, would be writing dissertations 

 (borrowed) and delivering lectures to farmers of 

 50 years experience. 



We have too much of this now. Leave the man- 

 agement of farming, even the institutions of the 

 State's bounty, to farmers themselves. We cannot 

 find better men for the business. We dare say that 

 if the State provides for instructing farmers in ac- 

 cordance with the views of farmers, and then leaves 

 the management of the business to the same class, 

 there will be a good account given of what the State 

 confides to their management, and that there will 

 be, as there has already been done, greater improve- 

 ment among the cultivators of the soil, than in 

 any other profession. It is highly important to be- 



