8 



Nearly twenty years ago, your excellent and intelligent neigh- 

 bor, George R. Russell, told you that " excellence in agricul- 

 ture is neither the result of closet-study, nor of assiduous labor ; 

 it can be effected only by a union of both ; " your record shows 

 that you have not forgotten it. In 1852, William S. King an- 

 nounced to you that " the object of agricultural education is 

 to make practical farmers ; " and this Commonwealth now be- 

 lieves it. In 1855, Rev. J. M. Merrick impressed the duty and 

 value of education upon your minds and said, " Let the farmer 

 consider that his first duty is self-culture." In 1857, Rev. Alvan 

 Lamson, of blessed memory, declared to you, " that the labor 

 attended with the best results is intelligent labor ; that what 

 may be called an agricultural literature, embodying scientific 

 principles and their application, facts and experiments, success 

 and failure — what has been attempted and what accomplished 

 — will in different ways be turned to account, guiding, aiding, 

 stimulating, inspiring hope and courage." In 1858, John S. 

 Eldridge, whom many of you, I think, will recognize, and to 

 whom we are all so much indebted to-day, said in concise and 

 pointed phrase : — " Man was created to labor. * * Labor should 

 be hopeful. * * All labor should be intelligent. * * All labor 

 should be well directed. * * In the United States all labor is 

 respectable. * * Idleness then is disgrace ; " and he has been 

 diligent in a practical application of these wise maxims from 

 that day to this, as you can testify. In 1860, George S. Hillard, 

 in an address full of beauty and good sense, went to the root 

 of the whole matter, when he gave this sound advice : — " Let 

 the young man who has resolved to be a farmer, also resolve to 

 •stay at home." In 1862, Judge Thomas appealed also to our 

 young men to believe in the farm ; and he told them, " If a 

 young man has higher, nobler aims in life, the development and 

 culture of mind and heart, what better school is there than the 

 culture of the earth ? I mean, of course, the culture of the 

 earth in the light and with the eye of science." In 1863, Rev. 

 George Putnam, who surveys society with as keen an eye as 

 any man now living, encouraged you by saying : — " Farmers, as 

 a class are as rich as any other class. * * And the great agri- 

 cultural masses are not found to be the peril but the stay and 

 strength of a nation." And so Agassiz discoursed early to you 

 of the " helps of science to agriculture," and Felton cheered 



