98 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Clay reposes at Ashland. Calhoun always delighted in the 

 beauties of his own mountain home, and around his grave 

 flower the gentle magnolias planted by his own hand. "We who 

 have hearts can never forget when our own great statesman 

 went down by that sea which he loved so well, and there amidst 

 his own fields, fragrant with the breath of departing summer, 

 with his patient herds grazing around him — as the great barons 

 die — on the soil endeared by sweetest inemories of life, health, 

 ambition, " cares of state," of a future eternal in the heavens, 

 — so he died, and the ocean chants the requiem, through 

 changing seasons, over the grave of the statesman and farmer 

 of Marsh field. 



Said Washington, in his message to Congress in 1796 : " It 

 will not be doubted that, with reference either to individual or 

 national welfare, agriculture is of primary importance. Insti- 

 tutions for promoting it grow up, supported by the public purse, 

 and to what object can it be dedicated with greater propriety ?" 



Among other resolutions, John Adams oifered the following, 

 in the Congress of 177G : " Resolved, That it be recommended 

 to the Assemblies, Conventions, and Councils of Safety, that they 

 take the earliest measures for erecting in each and every colony 

 a Society for the Encouragement of Agriculture." 



The practical mind of Franklin early foresaw the benefits of 

 teaching agricultural science in a collegiate course. Writing 

 to a friend, in 1749, he says : " I am pleased with your mention- 

 ing agriculture as one of the sciences to be taught, because I 

 am of opinion it may be made as much a science as any of those 

 that are not purely mathematical ; and none of them deserves 

 so much to be taught as this, at least none more so, since it is 

 truly the foundation of wealth and welfare of tlie country." 



Said Mr. Jefferson, speaking of this subject: "The class 

 principally is that of agriculture. It is tlie first in utility, and 

 ought to be the first in respect. It is a science of the very first 

 order. In every college and university, a professorship of 

 agriculture and a class of its students might be honored as its 

 first." In the mind of this illustrious man, it held the first 

 rank as a part of our industry and as a noble pursuit. 



With physical boundaries embracing a realm of majestic 

 proportions ; peopled by a race of Saxon origin, unquestionable 

 in its valor, unexampled in its powers of endurance, following 



