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obliged to adopt a system of rapid husbandry unknown in this 

 State not many years ago. Early potato crops, vegeta])les 

 grown under glass, and the early products of the garden, forced 

 into almost premature existence, now take the place once occu- 

 pied by corn, and grain, and hay, in the list of what the farmer 

 sells. In order to meet this requirement of the market he 

 must exercise a kind of skill wholly unnecessary in the pro- 

 duction of the staples of trade. 



The raising of fruit, too, was once as simple as the planting 

 of a forest-tree. In order to obtain an abundant supply it was 

 only necessary to plant trees — and wait with patience a few 

 years. The apple was at times a drug in the market ; peaches 

 were allowed to decay on the ground where they fell from the 

 overladen trees ; plums were easily raised in abundance ; all 

 with but little care and at little cost. But now the earth is 

 encumbered with "barren trees, decayed and dead;" the 

 curculio destroys the plum ; the yellows extirpates the peach ; 

 the caterpillar, and canker-worm, and burrowing maggot, and 

 cere-worm blight the apple in every stage of its growth, and 

 ingenuity and science are exhausting themselves in endeavor- 

 ing to ascertain the surest and most economical way of destroy- 

 ing the pests. 



It is the careful and economical application of fertilizers and 

 labor to the soil for special crops, provided for a local market, 

 the selection of animals adapted to the land on which they 

 are to be fed, and an effectual and inexpensive war upon the 

 destroying insect tribes, that occupy the attention of the suc- 

 cessful farmer of our day. Add to these the cost of labor and 

 the expenses of subsistence, and you can easily understand 

 that his work is by no means easy. 



To enable the farmer to meet and overcome these obstacles, 

 we appeal now to science and invention. Agricultural educa- 

 tion has become one of the most important questions of our day 

 — how it shall be conducted, and in what it shall consist. An 

 accurate knowledge of the best systems of husbandry, an under- 

 standing of the structure, habits, health and diseases of animals, 

 a capacity to analyze and apply manures, skill in the manipula- 

 tion of soils, an intelligent comprehension of what lands to 

 drain, and what to avoid, are deemed now to be the object of an 

 agricultural education, and indispensable to successful agricul- 



