MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 417 



John Brooks, of Princeton : — This resolution seems to squint 

 towards a college. If it has that tendency, I shall be opposed 

 to it ; for I do not believe that the farmers are prepared to 

 spend money in instituting a college. I think it would do 

 them no good whatever. This resolution seems to interfere 

 with one which has just passed. We have passed a resolution 

 for a central board, making it their duty to collect this very in- 

 formation and compile it into a book. It seems to be the 

 same duty here. If that is the case, two such resolutions are 

 not necessary. As for lecturing to the people, I doubt whether 

 that is advantageous for the very best reason to my mind in 

 the world, — that the lecturer will not know what to say ; that 

 he has no data on which to make out any speech, because 

 science, as I understand it, is based upon facts. What facts 

 has this commissioner that are applicable to agriculture in this 

 State ? I say, sir, generally speaking, no fact. And why? 

 Because the science of agriculture has not yet grown up in this 

 country. We are dependent entirely upon Europe, as I under- 

 stand it, for our agricultural science. You may pile this room 

 full of European agricultural books, and you may condense all 

 the knowledge which they contain applicable to this country 

 into a primer. Therefore, if this gentleman goes out to lecture, 

 he has nothing to found his lecture upon. And to be depen- 

 dent upon Europe, is of little or no use to us, inasmuch as our 

 circumstances, our facts, our influences are entirely different in 

 connection with agriculture here, from what they are in Great 

 Britain or in Europe. 



I have not had the pleasure of reading the report of the com- 

 missioners. But I understand it gives an accouut of a vast 

 number of agricultural schools in Europe. Suppose we take 

 the Prussian system ; do you believe it can be carried out here ? 

 I believe that the farmers will not agree that it can do good. 

 For that reason, and for the reason that I have said that we 

 have no science yet formed, it seems to me that an agricultural 

 school cannot be a benefit. 



There is another reason. We must begin at the end ; that 

 is, we must begin at the bottom. We must create ourselves. 

 This board, so far as it might be made useful, is a very good 

 53 



