AN EXPERIMENTAL STATION. 167 



and in our interests the interests of all classes in the com- 

 munity shall be promoted." Therefore, send your own men 

 to the Legislature. Not as politicians. If they want to go 

 for that purpose, kick them out. If they are willing to go 

 as men deeply interested in this primary and most important 

 pursuit of mankind, and ready to do everything according to 

 their intelligence to promote and to advance it, send them to 

 the Legislature, and then let us have this experiment station 

 in the interest of all classes. I know formers will say, "Taxes 

 are very high, we can't afford to make any additional tax, 

 even for the benefit of agriculture." If there is any man 

 who feels that way, who does not want to pay his share of 

 the tax to support a first-class experiment station in Massa- 

 chusetts, well equipped in every respect, if he will come to 

 me, I will pay his share, if he is worth ten thousand dollars, 

 and it will not cost me ten cents a year. 



Now, I have put this matter before you. Think of it. 

 Think of the work necessary to prove facts in agriculture ; 

 of the experiments needed ; of the slow progress that, under 

 existing circumstances, we must make ; and say if w T e have 

 not force enough, intelligence enough, and will enough in 

 Massachusetts to have established for us, at the expense of 

 the State, an experiment station that will aid in all this work. 

 I thank you for your attention. 



Mr. Moore of Concord. After the long and able defence 

 that the professor has seen fit to make of the Stockbridge 

 fertilizers, I do not know that I shall say much about them. 

 In regard to the claims of the farmers of Massachusetts upon 

 the professor of agriculture and upon Professor Goessmann, I 

 suppose they have no legal claims, and certainly it is to their 

 credit that they are willing to do something in the way of 

 experiment. 



In regard to an experimental station, the trustees of the 

 Agricultural College insisted upon having four hundred acres 

 of land, and what was the reason they gave for wanting it? 

 Why, for the purpose of making experiments, to teach those 

 young men, and for the benefit of the farmers of Massachu- 

 setts. I know that to be so, because I was consulted in 

 regard to it. 



