21 



heart, discourage the attempts which are made to cultivate and 

 inform the minds of those who hold in their hands the most 

 important of all our industries. The agricultural society may 

 not display always an encouraging record of crops or the 

 applied labor of a farm, but it will inevitably rouse a spirit of 

 emulation and excite ambition, and set an example which will 

 be felt in the community. The farmers' club may arrive at no 

 conclusion, may begin a season with discussion, and decide no 

 question under debate ; but it will drop a hint or present an 

 experiment which being accepted by some bright and thought- 

 ful member, will lead to a long experience of successful 

 farming. The agricultural college may not send a class of 

 practical farmers into the community and upon the land each 

 year, but it will educate some keen and capable and observing 

 youth, who will enter the field of farming and so cultivate it 

 that the community will learn to have confidence in his work, 

 and will discover many a useful rule written down on his well- 

 tilled and well-managed acres. As the wants and demands of 

 American society increase, it will be found that the American 

 system of land-holding requires that the American system of 

 education be carried into this occupation as well as into all 

 others. And it will also be found, I think, that they who have 

 succeeded best in arranging and tilling their farms, and sup- 

 plying a market, have instinctively adopted rules of husbandry 

 which education offers to all who ask them of her. I urge, 

 therefore, upon you a constant spirit of inquiry, a profound 

 respect for every form of agricultural education, remember- 

 ing that the knowledge which you possess was wrought 

 out for you by your fathers, and that a still more accurate 

 knowledge is the best legacy you can transmit to those who 

 succeed you as the citizen-proprietors of the American soil. 



