MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 491 



fonnation relative to institutions for this purpose in Europe, your memorialists 

 would particularly ask the attention of the General Court to his statements on 

 this subject. It will appear from the facts therein set forth, that these institu- 

 tions have greatly abounded of late years, and that they are most numerous 

 in those countries which have made the greatest progress in husbandry. 



Your memorialists know no reason why such an institution should not be as 

 much wanted, and as beneficial in Massachusetts, as in any country of Europe. 

 We possess a soil of that medium fertility, which makes it necessary to come 

 in aid of nature, by all the resources of art and science. This circumstance 

 gives peculiar importance to the dissemination of that knowledge, which is 

 necessary for the greatest possible enrichment of the soil, the invention and 

 improvement of implements of husbandry, the choice and perfection of breeds 

 of animals, the introduction of superior varieties in the vegetable kingdom, 

 and in a word, the more productive management of a farm in all its depart- 

 ments. For these purposes resort must be had directly or indirectly to almost 

 every department of knowledge; and. your memorialists know of no way by 

 which that knowledge can be attained but by a regular course of instruction. 



If it is said that this knowledge can be got out of books by individual and 

 unaided inquiry, this is true to some extent, but no more true of agricultural 

 knowledge than knowledge of any other description. Your memorialists are 

 not aware that it is any more easy to get a thorough knowledge of husbandry 

 by individual exertion and private study, than it is to acquire in that way a 

 competent knowledge of law, medicine or divinity. 



Again, your memorialists are sensible that there is a pretty general preju- 

 dice against what is called " book farming," and a preference as general for a 

 practical knowledge of the subject. But there is, your memorialists conceive, 

 no opposition between them. If there were, the objection would hold, not so 

 much against institutions for agricultural education, as against the resort to 

 books for private instruction in husbandry. An agricultural school would be 

 provided with an experimental farm where all the processes of husbandry 

 would be performed ; with collections where specimens of all the substances 

 useful in farming would be exhibited ; and it would be provided with a teacher 

 or teachers practically versed in the art, and able to give instruction not only 

 in the lecture-room, but on the field. The proposition that practical knowl- 

 edge is more useful to the farmer than book knowledge, certainly furnishes no 

 argument against such an institution. It is one of the most effectual agents 

 for imparting practical knowledge. 



Mere book knowledge, if there is any such thing, that is, knowledge derived 

 from meditation, without any experimental acquaintance with facts, must of 

 course be too general to be of value. But knowledge derived from experience 

 does not cease to be valuable because it is recorded in a book. On the con- 

 trary, it is in this way that the knowledge of one man becomes available to 

 other men. In institutions for education, however, still a further step is taken. 

 The learner is guided in the choice of books ; and the instructions of the dead 

 letter are rendered more impressive by the living voice. 



Practical knowledge is got in various ways ; from personal observation and 

 experience, from the study of books, and from the instruction of others. In 



