33 



Rome, but the idea that the trifle may enforce, which generally saves 



or benefits the world. 



" A small drop of ink 



Falling like dew upon a thought produces 

 That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, 

 Think." 



In 1849 Hon. M. P. Wilder in an address before the Norfolk 

 Agricultural Society broached the subject of an Agricultural College, 

 and the next year a bill to establish an Agricultural College and an 

 experimental farm passed the Senate of Massachusetts unanimously, 

 but was defeated in the House. A board of commissioners was; then 

 created, consisting of Mr. Wilder, Edward Hitchcock, Samuel A. 

 Eliot, Thomas E. Payson and Eli Warren, and in 1851 their report 

 with an elaborate account of the agricultural schools in Europe, vis- 

 ited by Prof. Hitchcock was made to the Legislature. It commenced 

 by the remark that kk the first seed ever planted was the first effort 

 of civilization," and stated that no institution expressly for instruc- 

 tion in agriculture -had then been established either in this Common- 

 wealth or in any other state. No immediate action resulted from 

 their recommendations. In 1852 the Massachusetts Board of Agri- 

 culture was established. Mr. Wilder was persistent, and in 1856 

 obtained a charter of " The Trustees of the Massachusetts School of 

 Agriculture, "and during 1856 he also acquired from Congress a charter 

 of the United States Agricultural Society, which was opposed in the 

 Senate by Jefferson Davis on the ground, which now seems absurd, 

 that Congress had no power to create corporations. In I860 a com- 

 mittee of the Board of Agriculture, consisting of Richard S. Fay, 

 Marshall P. Wilder, and Ex-Lieut. -Governor Simon Brown made an 

 elaborate report upon agricultural education, and the Board caused 

 to be published for the use of schools, a "Manual of Agriculture," 

 of which George B. Emerson and Charles L. Flint, its accomplished 

 secretary, were the authors. All this information, showing however 

 a difference of opinion among leading agriculturists, was before the 

 public ; and the farming community had become more alive to the 

 necessity of more scientific and exact knowledge of agriculture than 

 ever before, when Hon. Justin S. Merrill's bill was introduced by 

 him in 1857, in the National House of Representatives, supported 

 by numerous petitions of the people. It was passed and vetoed by 

 Presfdent Buchanan in I860 ; and the pendency of that bill, and a ques- 

 tion of its location in Springfield or elsewhere had delayed action upon 

 5 



