MARSHALL P. WILDER'S ADDRESS. 595 



Is it not then economically a question of great importance, 

 whether such an improvement can be produced, particularly in 

 this county, so celebrated for the raising of stock ? Whether, 

 by any system of breeding, we can improve our milch cows so 

 that all shall be as valuable for dairy purposes, as the best we 

 now possess ? Doubtless we can, if any reliance is to be placed 

 on the laws of animal physiology or the deductions of science. 

 Guided by these to successful practice, it is already the boast 

 of the pigeon fanciers of Europe, that they can breed out the 

 last tip of black from the wing, and of the herdsman that he 

 can breed stock to a pattern. 



Who cannot appreciate the difference between the clean, 

 smooth, small-boned, beautifully-formed, quiet, and easily-fatted 

 Suffolk pig ; and the long pike-nosed, roach-backed, porcupine 

 grunter, continually eating and squealing, but, like Pharaoh's 

 lean kine, never full ? And why may not all the swine in the 

 Commonwealth be of the former class ? If they were, their 

 worth would be increased twenty per cent, not to speak of the 

 great saving of expense in fattening. 



On these and other points we want a system of experiments 

 directed by scientific knowledge. Are they not important to 

 our farmers ? But how shall this information be derived ? At 

 whose expense ? By whose instruction ? They who are to 

 produce from mother earth the grain and grass, the beef and 

 pork, and other products for the sustenance of our race, should 

 of all men have the aid of governnient to provide for them the 

 means of knowledge and success. 



True, we have agricultural papers and periodicals, and they 

 have wrought wonders in the dissemination of knowledge. 

 Where there was only one ten years since, there are now a 

 dozen, urged on in their noble cause by a generous rivalry and 

 competition, and it is estimated that in New England alone, 

 there are sent out, weekly, more than fifty thousand copies. 

 These are cheering omens. Their rapid increase and exten- 

 sion evince the growing interest of the community in this de- 

 partment of literature. Where they were once ridiculed as 

 chimerical and visionary, they are now hailed as the welcome 

 messengers, and as the best friends of the farmer. Let then 



