FUTURE AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 55 



tlie industry and economy of the field, orchard, dairy or stable 

 than they can ever be taught elsewhere than on the homestead 

 of the intelligent, practical farmer. So, too, for the repetition 

 of familiar knowledge, for the study of ordinary text-books, the 

 cultivation of science in the way of imitation and of elementary 

 teaching, we might safely rely on the academies and schools 

 already provided. There is, however, a vision of an ideal ex- 

 cellence in the way of prosecuting the studies needed for the 

 illumination of the dark places of our agricultural life which 

 must some day be realized. Nature spreads out before mankind 

 a world of almost infinite possibilities. The competitions of the 

 mechanic arts have put in requisition all the aids of known 

 science, are constantly stimulating into life new discoveries, or 

 crowding the adventurous thinker or inventor to invade some 

 new domain of knowledge or ingenuity ; while civilized agri- 

 culture has, during the greater part of its history, contented 

 itself only with the devastation of its fields and with seeking 

 for virgin soils to be cropped in their turn to sterility. There 

 is in our Commonwealth a very large and increasing body of 

 intelligent farmers, who believe in a future for their favorite 

 pursuit worthy of that art which is the fountain of all others 

 and is the final source of wealth. But there is needed, as well 

 for them as for those less impressed by the value of science, the 

 inspiring lead- of constantly advancing ideas. * * * I re- 

 member the photograph, the magnetic telegraph, the discovery 

 of vaccination, the painless operations of surgery — the triumphs 

 and miracles of genius. I seem to see for the earth herself and 

 her cultivators the coming time, when husbandry, attended by 

 all the ministries of science and art, shall illume and regenerate 

 her countenance and recreate our life below." 



You will pardon me if I occupy a few moments in considering 

 this matter of agricultural education as one of the modern 

 means of improving our art. I desire especially to urge atten- 

 tion to the practical education of all classes of young men in 

 the business of farming, as the main object of our agricultural 

 schools. Without this all our endowments will be in vain, and 

 will be lost sight of as an instrument for improving the cultiva- 

 tion of the earth. And I am by no manner of means sure that 

 the failure of forty years' effort to established schools of agri- 

 culture in this country is not attributable to the fact that the 



