68 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



it where it comes without his bidding, and seek it too by care 

 and labor, as he does the precious fruits of the earth. 



We have, then, in agriculture a pursuit which is educational in 

 its nature, and which demands education for its successful 

 prosecution. There is in our country a reason why scientific 

 agriculture has been undervalued. "We have untold acres of 

 virgin soil. When one farm has been impoverished, farther west 

 lies another. And the journey to it costs less than to bring 

 back fertility to the old. All of our skill in agriculture has 

 been exhausted in finding new ways of putting in and gathering 

 crops. We invent plantmg machines and astonish the world 

 with our reapers, and thus become powerful to steal away the 

 riches of the soil. We can no more make unlimited drafts 

 upon the soil than we can upon our bank account. Whole sand 

 fields in Virginia and other portions of our country show where 

 the account has been overdrawn. Shall we go on sweeping over 

 our fair land, converting it to a barren waste, or shall we learn 

 to receive from the earth only that we may pay her well in 

 return ? As land becomes scarce, the problem will be pressed 

 upon us, how to make New England soil most productive. And 

 to aid in solving this problem, we have now established agricul- 

 tural colleges. We look to them to give dignity to the pursuit 

 by giving us a class of highly educated farmers ; by reducing 

 the scattered facts of agriculture to a science ; by so presenting 

 the subject, that it shall be seen that farming demands constant 

 and most intelligent thought. We expect also that here will be 

 tried those experiments which cost too much for common 

 farmers, but which are needed for the greatest success and 

 progress in the pursuit. We expect that Massachusetts will 

 become richer in its soil ; that the day has gone by for robbing 

 the earth, the hills and valleys of the old Bay State, and then 

 deserting her for the West. We think the day is coming when 

 she will understand her own interest, and foster by every means 

 in her power this great interest, now so much neglected. In 

 that college we shall find tlie sons of many professional men, 

 who have learned the blessings of a farmer's life, either in 

 contrast with their own, or by the remembrance of early expe- 

 rience. Bread will always be earned by the sweat of the face, 

 but if agriculture can be brought to that standard where it 

 ought ever to be found — where it calls to its aid all the natural 



