72 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



property amounts to §350,000, and their annual premiums ex- 

 ceed 825,000. 



The New England Agricultural Society, under the leadership 

 of its talented founder. Dr. George B. Loring, in addition to its 

 most successful annual exhibitions, has instituted at the farm of 

 the Massachusetts Agricultural College grand trials of the im- 

 plements and machinery of husbandry. These have awakened 

 much interest and competition among manufacturers through- 

 out the United States, and have been exceedingly serviceable to 

 the farmers of New England, affording them the opportunity of 

 seeing in operation a great variety of the best machines. 



After the first establishment of agricultural societies, the next 

 step for the improvement of our farming was the employment, 

 already alluded to, of the learned commissioner, Henry Colman, 

 to make an agricultural survey of the State, and suggest meas- 

 ures for promoting this important interest. From his entire 

 familiarity with the history and progress of English agriculture 

 he was admirably qualified for the task. In his final report he 

 urges the necessity of special education for farmers as follows : 

 " In order to render the agricultural profession more attractive 

 and respectable, we must seek its intellectual elevation. Im- 

 provement of the mind confers a rank which wealth cannot 

 purchase, and commands a respect which the proudest aristoc- 

 racy may envy. It is too late in the day to decry the value of 

 science in agriculture. Who can name an art, or trade, or 

 business, in which knowledge is a disadvantage or a prejudice 

 to success, or in which, indeed, it is not a substantial help ? 

 "Why should agriculture, combining as it does so many reasons 

 and opportunities for the application of skill and knowledge, be 

 an exception to every other art and business ? " 



The first effort to carry these ideas into practical operation 

 was not made till 1850, when Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, then 

 president of the Norfolk Agricultural Society, and also presi- 

 dent of the Massachusetts Senate, introduced a bill, which passed 

 the Senate, but failed in the House of Representatives, author- 

 izing the governor to appoint a board of ten commissioners who 

 should have power to establish an agricultural school or college, 

 and who should consider the expediency of the formation of a 

 board of agriculture as a department in the State government. 

 The result was that a commissioner was authorized, and Dr. 



