286 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed." Another 

 says, "And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and 

 the sons of the alien shall be your ploughmen and your vine- 

 dressers." And another, "First the blade, then the ear, then 

 the full corn in the ear." It is announced, "And I will send 

 grass in thy fields for thy cattle." Again, "For thou shalt 

 eat the labor of thy hands." Yet again, "Aud Joseph gath- 

 ered corn, as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left 

 numbering." 



Such are a few of the many declarations and sayings in 

 sacred history. Elsewhere we find corroborative references 

 in abundance. Historians have written and poets have sung 

 the praises of agriculture. Chief among the latter in the 

 olden time were Theocritus of the Greeks and Virgil among 

 the Romans. Much of their writings related to the tending 

 of flocks and herds; but the "Georgics," as the word indi- 

 cates, dwell upon the cultivation of the soil. 



Through all ages agriculture has been relied upon for sus- 

 tenance, and some of the noblest minds have been engaged in 

 the furtherance of its work. Its progress in this country 

 during the last century has been most ably sketched, as we 

 all well recollect, by the worthy Secretary of this Board, as 

 printed in the state report for the year 1873-4. 



The relative importance of agriculture as it stands in the 

 list of the greatest industries of the world was truly rated 

 (as often quoted) by the great statesman, Daniel Webster, 

 when he placed it above both manufactures and commerce. 

 For what could others do without this ? And this reference 

 leads us to one of the topics intended, the relations which 

 art and agriculture bear to each other. 



First, to follow out the above comparison, without agricult- 

 ure, and that on a large scale, we could have but little com- 

 merce (which implies art as well as trade), both because it 

 supplies many articles for transportation, and because most 

 of the material for the construction of ships and cars — the 

 great carriers — must be supplied from the forests of the 

 farmer. On the other hand, it is true, the former is depend- 

 ent upon these means of transportation to get the ordinary 

 products of his land to a market. And so while the arts of 

 ship-building and car and cart making are of the highest 



