208 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



supervision and oral explanations, the designs he con- 

 templated, when he took cold from exposure in a 

 snow storm on the 12th of J^ecember. It produced 

 quinsv in the course of the night of the 12th, and 

 closed his career on the 14th in death. Thus the 

 great intellect was quenched when practically employ- 

 ed in the endeavor to make Mount Vernon realize 

 some portion of tlie vast scheme of agricultural im- 

 provement which his last message so impressively 

 ur"-ed on Congress. AVhat a tribute would it be to 

 his memory if Congress should now take up his de- 

 sign, frustrated by the hand of death, and make it 

 immortal by selecting Mount Vernon as the seat of 

 an agricultural school and model farm, uniting it, as a 

 branch, to the Smithsonian Institute — the board of 

 regents forming the board of agriculture which Wash- 

 ington contemplated, and the learned professors 

 bringing all the lights of science, aided by experi- 

 ments in the lecture-room and on the farm, to increase 

 agricultural knowledge and provide for its diffusion ! 

 What a monument would Mount Vernon become 

 over the dust of its glorious founder — the founder of 

 the Republic — when redeemed again from wilderness 

 and desolation by the power and genius of his coun- 

 try ! It would be seen surpassing the finest cultiva- 

 tioQ of the most perfect model farms of Europe, as 

 our country surpasses Europe in evory useful enter- 

 prize exciting its emulation, worked by the hands of 

 scholars coming from the several States of the Union, 

 repaid for their labors by tlie nurture, the energy, and 

 the practical skill acquired from it, and by the science 

 taught in the lecture room of the associated Smith- 

 sonian Institution, by the inspirations of patriotism 

 caught at the shrine of Wasuington and the emula- 

 tion to tread in his footsteps on the very spot that 

 fostered his youth, and in the occupation which fitted 

 him to lead the nation's destinies; it would in effect be 

 the restoration of a patriarchal place and its elevat- 

 ing influences to the children of the Father of his 

 Country. 



Watched over and cherished by the representatives 

 of the several States and of the people, and by the 

 Chief Magistrate of the nation, all interested to hal- 

 low the spot, to make it teem wdth improvements, 

 which imitation would spread in tlie surrounding coun- 

 try, and which the annual swarms of educated youth 

 from its industrious hive would cany with them to 

 the remotest parts. Mount Vernon would renew 

 throughout the world its benignant influence, put on 

 the aspect of that glory which now lies buried in its 

 bosom, and become again a source of joy to the im- 

 mortal mind it nursed, if the unbodied soul can take 

 an interest in sublunary things once dear to it. For 

 the li\nng surely, and to all future generations of the 

 living, it would be pregnant with blessings, and not 

 only to tho-e (leri\'ing innnediate instruction in the 

 first and best business of life, but all the pilgrims of 

 every nation on earth that may, through successive 

 ages, visit the sepulchre of the apostle of liberty, 

 would cany away with its patriotic inspiration a sense 

 of the value of tuition in the art which creates per- 

 sonal independence and imparts the vigor of mind 

 and body essential to the maintenance of poHtical 

 freedom. 



The principal professor of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution (Mr. HENRv)ha3 been consulted in reference to 



its becoming the nucleus of the agricultui'al establish- 

 ment here proposed. He does not consider the 

 funds at his disposal more than suflicient to accom- 

 plish what he considers the main object in which it 

 is now engaged, and to add to the assistance it now 

 gives incidentally to agricultural instruction the ad- 

 vantage of a course of annual lectures on the sub- 

 ject. With the aid of the appropriation which Con- 

 gress makes every session for the benefit of agricul- 

 ture, in the shape of Patent Office Reports, &c., the 

 whole system of instruction coutempkited for the ag- 

 ricultural school might be carried out through the 

 agency of the Smithsonian Institution; its regents 

 becoming the board of agriculture to which Wash- 

 ixGTON looked as the instrument of so much good, 

 and Mount Vernon, as the model farm (worked by 

 the students, hke those of Europe conducted on a 

 similar plan), supporting them by its products. 



The purchase of the farm and the construction of 

 tenements for the superintendent and scholars would 

 require considerable expenditure in the beginning, 

 but the estabhshment, permanently founded, under 

 proper management, would preserve itself and pro- 

 vide amply for the subsistence of the number of 

 scholars engaged in the cultivation of the farm and re- 

 ceiving the instruction of the Smithsonian Institution. 

 As a property aopurtenant to the latter, the question 

 of jurisdiction of the General Government over the 

 soil, as clashing with that of Virginia, would be 

 avoided. It would be a farm and a school, like oth- 

 er farms and schools in Virginia, subject to the gen- 

 eral laws of the State, and to such rules of the insti- 

 tution as the parties entering it would make obligOr 

 tory by their own consent. 



If, however, unforeseen difficulty should be present- 

 ed to the acquisition and ajiplication of it to the ob- 

 ject proposed, there are many farms finely situated in 

 the District of Columbia suitable for the design, if it 

 shall be the pleasure of Congress to adopt it. And 

 here (if Congress has exerted a constitutional power 

 in providing a hospital for the insane of the District) 

 it may, if in its wisdom it deems fit, found a District 

 school, extending its benefits to the sane of the whole 

 country. 



The undersigned committee respectfully submit this 

 memorial, behoving that they represent truly, not on- 

 ly the wishes and interests of the Maryland State Ag- 

 ricultural Society, but many others of the agricultu- 

 ral associations which a zeal for the improvement of 

 husbandry has given birth to in every State of the 

 Union. The opinion generally prevails tliat Congress 

 may organize a sj'stem at the capital for the diffusion 

 of agricultural knowledge, associated with that al- 

 ready established for kindred objects, and that it 

 might be made, under wise and prudent legislation, 

 auxiliary to the aims of every State agricultural 

 school or association in the Union, and thus advance 

 the greatest interest of the country, not merely by its 

 own direct action, but by the impulse it M'ould give 

 to co-operating systems in the several States. 



Jas. T. Earle, 

 Oden Bowie, 

 Clemext Hill, 



F. P. Bl.AIK, 



Geo. W. Huqhes. 



