GEORGE R. RUSSELL'S ADDRESS. COS 



and cover blackboards with cabalistic characters, when " our 

 forefathers had no other books but the score and the tally ? " 



Advancement is the destiny of man. He who stops in the 

 race is run over, and left behind, crippled and forgotten. What- 

 ever may be the limit to human attainment, it has not yet 

 been discovered. We press forward to an eminence from 

 which we hope to behold all created things, but it is reached 

 only to fnid heights to be climbed and difficulties to be sur- 

 mounted. 



While learning has rarely called in vain for assistance, when 

 its object has been to swell the already overcrowded ranks of 

 what is generally understood by professional life, there has 

 been little or nothing done to educate young men as farmers. 

 The most important and the most honorable occupation, which 

 is coextensive with civilization, which employs millions of 

 men in daily labor, and on which the whole population of the 

 globe depends for subsistence, has not a single institution de- 

 voted to it in all this broad land. It is left to help itself as it 

 can, without government protection, and with only such en- 

 couragement as can be derived from societies formed by farmers 

 themselves. The exertions which have been made to es- 

 tablish an agricultural school in this State, have not yet been 

 successful, but it is to be hoped that they will be renewed and 

 persisted in, until this great branch of industry shall receive 

 the care and attention it demands. It is not supposed that an 

 institution will turn out ready-made practical husbandmen to 

 order, from the mere learning of books. There is no sncli in- 

 tention or expectation. But it is believed that a course can be 

 followed, which will combine theory with practice, and pro- 

 duce young men of intelligence and activity, whose hard hands 

 and bronzed faces will bear honorable testimony that they have 

 seen as much of the field as the study-room. 



It was a saying of Napoleon, that "battles make soldiers." 

 It is equally true, that hard work makes farmers. He who 

 would " thrive by the plough," must leave his gloves with his 

 Sunday coat. He must not expect to walk daintily over the 

 earth, in holiday garb, and have her productions spring up in 

 his footsteps. He who courts her favors, must go manfully to 



