16 



and by which it may be enabled to see what obstructions 

 and interferences are in the way of its prosperous progress ; 

 to see particularly where it obstructs itself, by pressing into 

 departments already too crowded, and where it may obtain 

 relief and elbow-room in departments not yet occupied. 

 American agriculture, above all, should be able to look it- 

 self fairly in the face, as in a mirror, through the medium of 

 the most detailed and exact periodical surveys, that it may 

 discover seasonably any symptoms of over-action or of 

 under-action, if there be any; and that it may run no risk 

 of expending and wasting its energies in unprofitable toils. 



In the next place, Government, State and National, can 

 encourage agricultural science, and promote agricultural 

 education. 



This subject has been so nearly exhausted, during the 

 last year or two, by President Hitchcock's report to our 

 own Legislature, by Dr. Lee's reports to the Patent Office 

 at Washington, and by the lectures and addresses in which 

 it has been treated in all parts of the country, that I propose 

 to notice it very briefly. 



Undoubtedly the noble system of common school edu- 

 cation, which is already in existence among us, and for 

 which we can never be too grateful to our Puritan Fathers, 

 is itself no small aid to the cause of agriculture. The far- 

 mers, and the farmers' children, enjoy their full share of its 

 benefits. It furnishes that original sub-soil ploughing to 

 the youthful mind which is essential to the success of 

 whatever other culture it may be destined to undergo. 

 There is no education, after all, which can take the place 

 of reading, writing, and keeping accounts; and the young 

 man who is master of these elemental arts, and whose 

 eye has been sharpened by observation, and his mind 

 trained to reflection, and his heart disciplined to a sense of 

 moral and religious responsibility, — and these are the 

 great ends and the great achievements of our common 



