766 MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



advocate who was not familiar with Vattel, Blackstone, and 

 other lights and guides in that profession; and so of the cler- 

 gyman and physician. But the first case in the Common- 

 wealth is yet to come to my knowledge where the young farmer 

 has passed through a systematic course of reading in agricultural 

 lore ; or where he is generally acquainted with the writings of 

 those who have devoted their talents to the interests of their 

 fellow men in this department of science. 



The names and opinions of Markham, Tull, Young, Mar- 

 shall, Forsyth, Bakewell, Loudon, Davy, Johnston, Liebig, 

 Dickson, Boussingault, Coleman, Buel, Fessenden, Downing, 

 Norton, and a great many others, whose writings areas impor- 

 tant to the young farmer, as Coke and Littleton are to the 

 young lawyer, remain as a dead letter to most of the husband- 

 men in the State. For the want of this reading, the young 

 may fall into the errors of Tull, or cloud their usefulness by min- 

 gling in politics, as did Young. It has been stated by high au- 

 thority that Tull was the "real founder of every recent improve- 

 ment that has been made in the agriculture of England." And 

 yet, important as those improvements must be to us here, the 

 writings of that individual are scarcely better known than the 

 hyeroglyphics on the obelisks of Egypt I 



We have a fine agricultural literature, full of sound and 

 valuable teachings, sometimes made attractive by ornate de- 

 scriptions, with beautiful imagery and illustrations, and thus 

 possessing a charm for the young and imaginative equal to 

 any class of literature of the age. Most of this lies unused in 

 the "old fields" of neglect, for want of proper effort to bring it 

 into notice and use. 



Some of the most attractive volumes in the language, upon 

 the subjects of chemistry, physiology, botany, geology, upon 

 the philosophy of the seasons, the effects of climate, and the 

 poetry of scientific agriculture, have sprung from the ablest 

 minds of the age. Some of these works admirably illustrate 

 the wonderful phenomena in nature, on the farm, and give the 

 farmer's occupation an interest heretofore unknown. 



After a fair remuneration for his labor, there is no one thing 

 which will afford such contentment to the farmer as a general 

 knowledge of the literature of the great art. And I earnestly 



