238 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



THE VALUE OF AGRICULTURAL INVESTIGATION, AND THE 

 ABILITY OF MASSACHUSETTS TO SUPPORT THE AGRI- 

 CULTURAL COLLEGE. 



BY DR. GEO. B. LORING. 



Gentlemen, — In attempting to perform my share of the labors 

 of this convention, I have considered the locality in which we 

 have met and the circumstances by which we are surrounded. 

 For the first time, the Board of Agriculture, the representatives 

 of the practical farmers of this Commonwealth, have convened 

 at the Agricultural College, the fountain, as we hope, of the 

 scientific principles which are to be applied to the business of 

 farming. The occasion is full of promise to our agricultural 

 community — promise which, I doubt not, will be entirely ful- 

 filled. The quality of the agricultural literature of the present 

 day, and the condition of the agriculture of our time, as com- , 

 pared with the past, the necessity for good agricultural educa- 

 tion, and the capacity of Massachusetts to place the Agricultural 

 College on a firm foundation, as well as its duty to do so, are 

 the topics to which I would call attention at the present time. 



Lord Bacon, who had a large collection of works upon agri- 

 culture, had them one day piled up in a courtyard and set on 

 fire ; for, said he, " In all these books I find no principles ; they 

 can, therefore, be of no use to any man." This remarkable 

 verdict was given, and this sentence executed in the early part 

 of the 17th century, probably ; for Lord Bacon died in 1626. 



To us, this act of Bacon is significant and important. Tliere 

 had been many agricultural writers before that day, whose books 

 have come down to us, and are often referred to as constituting 

 an interesting portion of our agricultural literature. If it is 

 indeed true that they had laid down no principles, had deduced 

 no general laws from a long accumulation of facts, had arrived 

 at no conclusions which attracted the mind of the great philos- 

 opher, and opened no path for his future speculations, would it 

 not be well for us to consider what the agriculture, and society, 

 and civil organization were, which brought forth such meagre 

 fruits, and were obliged to leave the great foundation of ail pros- 

 perity resting upon the doubtful pillars of isolated facts and 

 traditionary rules. The books which Bacon burned, the agri- 



