416 MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Secretary of the Commonwealth has enough to do. He never 

 has done this duty personally, and I think he never will do it 

 except through other agencies. It is proposed to place it in 

 the hands of a man whose life is agricultural, the breath of 

 whose nostrils is agriculture, who eats it and drinks it, and 

 who is given up to agriculture, accomplished in it throughout. 

 Make it his duty to do it, and I v/ill venture to say that it will 

 he not only as good a book as is now produced, but one which 

 will be read throughout the Commonwealth. He will con- 

 tribute to make it better in this way. He will suggest to the 

 local societies what are the subjects to which their minds 

 should be directed. He will have the elements in a far better 

 condition than the Secretary of the Commonwealth has ever 

 received them from the secretaries of the agricultural societies. 



The secretary is required " to collect agricultural statistics 

 and information in the various departments of this science ; to 

 correspond with local societies in this and other lands." Here 

 is an instrument by means of which the secretary can get in- 

 formation from all over the world, and this little report will 

 tell him where he can get his information. He will produce a 

 volume which will be valuable to the practical farmers, and not 

 to the book-farmers alone, (though I speak that word with a 

 great deal of respect, and not with the sneers which some have 

 used,) applicable to all farmers all over Massachusetts. 



The secretary shall have it a part of his duty to devise the 

 means of improving agriculture in general throughout the Com- 

 monwealth. Well, sir, if the government of the Common- 

 wealth should, in their wisdom, see fit to establish an agricul- 

 tural school, it seems to me that this thing would be necessary. 

 This kind of organization, this bureau of the government, would 

 be necessary in order to carry that plan into effective operation, 

 and to bring it to a point so that it can act in connection with 

 the local societies that now exist. If those schools are not es- 

 tablished, then this precise thing, so far as it can be applicable, 

 is needed by the people of this Commonwealth in order to 

 bring to a focus the information that is had now and is to be 

 had all through the State, and to put life into our societies and 

 make them more active in promoting the cause of agriculture. 



