AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 101 



extent, localized in the vicinity of the towns where the fairs are 

 held ; and yet they do not possess the vigor which institutions 

 positively local would enjoy. 



The town clubs hold annual fairs ; and these fairs should be 

 made tributary, in their products and in the interest they excite, 

 to the county fairs. Let the town fairs be held as early in the 

 season as practicable, and then let each town send to the county 

 fairs its first class premium articles as the contributions of the 

 local society as well as of tlie individual producers. Thus a 

 healthful and generous rivalry would be stirred up between the 

 towns of a county as well as among the citizens of cacli town ; 

 and a county exhibition, upon the plan suggested, would repre- 

 sent at one view the general condition of agriculture in the 

 vicinity. No one can pretend that this is accomplislied by the 

 present arrangements. Moreover the coiuity society, in its 

 management and in its annual exliibitions, would possess an 

 importance which it had not before enjoyed. As each town 

 would be represented by the products of the dairy, tlie herd and 

 the field, so it would be represented by its men ; and the annual 

 fair of the county would be a truthful and complete exposition 

 of its industrial standing and power. 



Out of a system thus broad, popular and strong, an agricul- 

 tural college will certainly spring, if such an institution shall 

 be needed. But is it likely that in a country where the land is 

 divided and the number of farmers is great, the majority will 

 ever be educated in colleges and upon strictly scientific princi- 

 ples ? I am ready to answer, that such an expectation seems to 

 me a mere delusion. The great body of young farmers must 

 be educated by the example and practices of their elders, by 

 their own efforts at individual and mutual improvement, and by 

 the influence of agricultural journals, books, lecturers, and the 

 example of thoroughly educated men. And as thoroughly edu- 

 cated men, lecturers, journals and books of a proper character 

 cannot be furnished without the aid of scientific schools and 

 thorough culture, the farmers, as a body, are interested in the 

 establishment of all institutions of learning that promise to 

 advance any number of men, however small, in the mysteries 

 of the profession ; but when we design a system of education for 

 a class, common wisdom requires us to contemplate its influence 

 upon each individual. The influence of a single college in any 



