221 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



here for the purpose of hearing words of wisdom from men 

 from different parts of the State on the great subject in which 

 we are all interested. If there was no other department in 

 which the Board of Agriculture could do good, this ought 

 to keep it from the grave ; because I apprehend the spirit 

 which has now been infused into this assembly will carry us 

 along until all shall feel the benefit of an institution like this. 



Why, gentlemen, there is no other department of trade or 

 science that does not have greater gatherings than the farmers 

 have ; and yet there is no pursuit which brings man so close to 

 the bosom of nature, and there is no pursuit on which the wel- 

 fare of the country so largely depends. Unfortunately, from 

 the paucity of the means of information, and from the character 

 of the employment, every farmer has had, hitherto, to fight, 

 like Harry-of-the-Wind, in one of Scott's novels, " by his own 

 hand," and has had no opportunity for education, no chance to 

 raise his head from the plough or the shovel to gather the infor- 

 mation he so much needed. But there are no men who are 

 more willing, now that the opportunity offers, to rise above their 

 old situation, and not only to obtain information themselves, but 

 to allow their sons to get the information necessary for their 

 employment. Now the great benefit of this college is not in 

 educating us, though I apprehend there is hardly a man who 

 would not be glad to go back and serve a year or two under the 

 instructions of President Clark, and get all the information 

 which that college can give ; but we feel that our sons need that 

 institution. We feel it, because we see in every part of the 

 world that intelligence is the governing agent. Why, it is but 

 lately that Russia has introduced the manufacture of sugar 

 from beets, and she was obliged to import engineers, instructors 

 and cultivators from France, and by a positive education, simi- 

 lar to that which is now taking place in our college, she expects 

 to be able to educate her young men so that she can produce 

 from these her own educators. That is what we want to do in 

 this country. There is no feeling so deeply implanted in the 

 human breast as the love of nature. There is no man, whether 

 he live in the city or in the country, who does not feel that he 

 would like to end his days where he began them, Cas most did,) 

 in the country. There is not a man, engaged in whatsoever 

 calling, who does not hope, sometime in the future, to own a 



