572 ' SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



Commonwealth, and to communicate instruction and advice 

 to every farmer who should consult him. What an impulse to 

 agriculture would the right man for the place impart! They 

 will further require that there be created, what Massachusetts 

 yet lacks, agricultural schools, in such number and location as 

 would accommodate the several parts of the State, to be taught 

 by men of extensive attainment in all science having any con- 

 nection with agriculture, aided by men already skilled in all 

 the practical operations of actual farming. 



I will not stop to make detailed statements of the studies 

 that should be pursued in such schools. They have been 

 exactly and admirably set forth in the report of the commis- 

 sioners upon that subject, made to our legislature by Professor 

 Hitchcock, in the session of 1851. Let me commend this re- 

 port to your notice in all its minute details, as worthy of your 

 special attention. Let me further commend to your careful 

 reading, the excellent address delivered before your society by 

 the Rev. Mr. Braman, of Danvers, at your last anniversary. 

 The argument in favor of what is here recommended, (and 

 this recommendation is but the reiteration of what has been 

 recommended a hundred times before,) is there most fully and 

 admirably set forth and needs no addition from me. Into these 

 schools, I would be glad to see thronging, the sons of our 

 farmers, who intend to follow the pursuits of their fathers, and 

 our young graduates of college, adopting the agricultural life, 

 in preference to taking their chances in professions already 

 over-stocked, and all selecting the country for a residence, rather 

 than risking the life of their bodies and souls amid the multi- 

 tudinous temptations of the city. 



The chief obstacle which the present farmer will encounter 

 in his effort at self-education, will be his own prejudices and 

 those of his class, — and these prejudices barricade the way of 

 his progress. I remember that when a boy, and not obeying 

 the counsel of my mother, on a certain occasion, — and i found 

 out, after taking my own course, that I had made a great mis- 

 take, — I remember that she looked at me reproachfully, and 

 said, " Harry you stand in your own light." A gentleman who 

 was near and heard the remark, suddenly turning upon me, 

 cried in my ear, with so loud a voice, that its echo has not left 

 me in the forty years that have since elapsed, " Harry, get ou.t 



