1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



237 



which belong to the scientific and truly intelli- 

 gent agriculturist. \V hy should it not be ■? Why 

 should it be taken for granted, because a young 

 man exhibits signs of remarkable talent, that he 

 cannot live a farmer ? All professions look to 

 this i3ursuit for their final reward. As soon as 

 men in other callings obtain a competency, their 

 thoughts turn towards retiring upon a farm. 

 This shows that the cultivation of the earth is 

 congenial with the natural tastes of man. 



Tlie remedy for this desertion of forming by the 

 young men, is to educate them for the practice of 

 farming, as other men are educated for their pur- 

 suits ; and it is too late in the day to say that if 

 you give them the taste for higher departments of 

 thought and of action, it will create a distaste for 

 muscular labor. How this education shall be car- 

 ried out. His Excellency thought would be wisely 

 answered by the Board of Agriculture. He be- 

 lieved it to be one of its most important duties to 

 give an answer to this question, and once an- 

 swered, he believed the government of Massachu- 

 setts, in whoseever hands it might be, would not 

 fail to second the accomplishment of such an ob- 

 ject. What the State will do, will depend very 

 much upon the manner in which the Board of 

 Agriculture shall discharge its duties. 



Mr. Proctor, of Danvers, expresed his gratifica- 

 tion at the views of His Excellency. He thought 

 there was much difficulty connected with the ques- 

 tion of "How shall the fiirmer be educated for his 

 calling r' He would suggest that something 

 might be done through the medium of the county 

 Agricultural Societies of the Commonwealth. Pla- 

 ces are needed for the trial of experiments in farm- 

 ing, because farming in books without experience 

 amounts to nothing. You may read and philoso- 

 phize to the end of time, but if you do not plant 

 and watch vegetation, science is good for nothing. 

 Each of these county societies has a fund, raised 

 by assessments on its members, and by subscrip- 

 tions, and if that fund amounts to the sum of 

 $3000, the State gives 20 per cent, on that 

 amount to the society, which is $G00 per annum. 

 He thought a part of this fund might be advanta- 

 geously invested by the societies in model or ex- 

 perimental farms, which might be made to yield a 

 good interest and at the same time afford excellent 

 facilities for the instruction and improvement of 

 the farmers of the Commonwealth. These farms 

 he would have under the management of the differ- 

 ent societies, subject to an annual visit from the 

 Secretary of the Board of Agriculture. Let them 

 be required to furnish annual reports to the Board, 

 and let the different records thus obtained be 

 brought together and compared, and conclusions 

 deduced therefrom. He thought it would be well 

 for the State to see that these funds were appro 



Mr. Sprague, of Duxbury, alluded to the neces- 

 sity for definite information among fawners. It is 

 highly important to establish principles in agri- 

 culture. In making experiments some farmers 

 succeed, while others do not, but the reasons of 

 the success and of the failure are alike unknown 

 to them. If by establishing a Board of Agricul- 

 ture great leading principles can be definitely fixed, 

 the work is begun, and the end is certain. 



Mr. Walker, of North Brookfield, considered an 

 experimented farm in an agricultural community 

 to be a matter of economy, as experiments can be 

 made more accurately and are therefore more re- 

 liable. He also forcibly urged the establishment 

 of farmers' institutes as a most important means 

 of diffusing sound agricultural information. 



Mr. Wright, Secretary of the Commonwealth, 

 made some interesting remarks in relation to the 

 improvements which have been made during the 

 last ten or fifteen years in farms and farming im- 

 plements, and eloquently set forth the advantages 

 of furnishing the farmer with a thorough, practi- 

 cal education. 



Mr. Flint, Secretary of the Board of Agriculture, 

 alluded to a remark made by the distinguished 

 Professor Johnson of Scotland, in one of his works, 

 that New England was eighty or ninety years be- 

 hind Scotland and England in farming, and that 

 they could and would maintain this superiority. 

 He thought the Professor might not have taken 

 into consideration all the circumstances. In his 

 country all the land is owned by 33,000 persons, 

 noblemen, gentlemen, lawyers, and the hke, and 

 of the three millions of laborers not one owned a 

 rod of soil. These 33,000 proprietors can com- 

 mand the most eminent talent in agricultural 

 knowledge, while the American farmer has not tl e 

 necessary means. With us the desideratum is to 

 perform the greatest amount of labor with the 

 smallest amount of capital. But while we have 

 something to learn of European agriculturists, p3r- 

 haps they have something to learn of us. 



Mr. Flint thought the agricultural interest 

 should be the leading object of public regard, and 

 he believed that if farmers gave expression to their 

 wants they would be met. The only way to re- 

 cruit the energies of our exhausted lands, is to in- 

 crease the diffusion of agricultural knowledge. 

 He stated that the State had dispensed $10,000 

 during the past year to the county agricultural 

 societies, and he was not sure but this was the 

 best method. 



Mr. Brooks, of Princeton, said that model farms 

 might answer very well for certain purposes, as 

 experimenting on the best food for stock, &c., but 

 they are not good for determining all farming ope- 

 rations, because the soils of different farms and the 

 soils on a single farm vary so much, that the ex- 



priated in this manner, and specific donations periments would not always be safe guides. His 

 made on the recommendation of the Board. 'idea would be to have an experimental farm under 



