432 MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



difficult of all tasks to perform. And hence it does seem to me 

 that a school is important, as one of the means for assisting in 

 obtaining this information ; not that it is going to work won- 

 ders. The people must come up to it. 



It does appear to me that the question about the establish- 

 ment of agricultural schools in Massachusetts, is merely a ques- 

 tion of time after all. 



The subject has made such rapid progress in Europe, within 

 a few years, that I was perfectly amazed to find the facts de- 

 velop themselves as they did, one after the other; to discover 

 such a multiplicity of facts with regard to them. Gentlemen 

 who have not seen this report will, perhaps, be surprised when 

 I tell them that I give there an account of 350 schools, of three 

 ditferent grades. Though some of them have been in opera- 

 tion for fifty years, the most have been recently established. 

 Gentlemen there did not seem to know how many schools 

 there were. 



I recollect getting acquainted with the Chevalier Bunsen. I 

 thought I should know from him all about the number of 

 schools in Prussia. He gave me a list of four schools in that 

 country. When I went there, I found thirty. Probably he 

 had not heard of them. Some of them were small. In France 

 there are seventy-five. In Ireland they have fifty. And the 

 Irish schools pleased me more than any others except the 

 French. I had an opportunity, in Ireland, of hearing examina- 

 tions of the young men. They were called in from the farm 

 and asked questions on the subject of practical agriculture, as 

 to draining, and how to adapt crops to different soils, and other 

 matters of that sort. And then, as to agricultural chemistry, 

 they were asked, What would you do in such and such circum- 

 stances? What does a soil with such and such properties 

 need? and so on. I do not believe there is a class of students 

 of any kind in our country, who would be able to answer one- 

 tenth of the questions which those young men answered, very 

 readily. And going out, as they do, to take charge of other 

 schools, they will accomplish much for the benefit of unfor- 

 tunate Ireland ; and being concerned with their own hands in 

 raising these crops, for other farms applying in the field those 



