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welfare, Agriculture is of primary importance. Institutions for 

 promoting it grow up, supported by the public purse, and to what 

 object can it be dedicated with greater propriety ? " 



Among other resolutions, John Adams oifered the following, in 

 the Congress of 1776 : " Resolved, That it be recommended to 

 the Assemblies, Conventions, and Councils of Safety, that they 

 take the earliest measures for erecting in each and every colony 

 a Society for the Encouragement of Agriculture." 



The practical mind of Franklin early foresaAv the benefits of 

 teaching Agricultural Science in a collegiate course. Writing to 

 a friend, in 1 749, he says, " I am pleased with your mentioning 

 Agriculture as one of the sciences to be taught, because I am of 

 opinion it may be made as much a science as any of those that 

 are not purely mathematical ; and none of them deserves so much 

 to be taught as this, at least none more so, since it is truly the 

 foundation of the wealth and welfare of the country." 



Said Mr. Jefferson, speaking of this subject : " The class prin- 

 cipally is that of Agriculture. It is the first in utility, and ought 

 to be the first in respect. It is a science of the very first order. 

 In every college and university, a professorship of Agriculture 

 and a class of its students might be honored as its first." In the 

 mind of this illustrious man, it held the first rank as a part of our 

 industry and as a noble pursuit. 



With the authority of the most distinguished men in Europe, 

 with the superadded testimony of our own great names in its be- 

 half, let us dedicate ourselves here to-day to the accompUshment 

 of that project, which you. Sir, in common with other noble- 

 minded men, have so long cherished, — the establishment of a 

 School of Agriculture worthy the name and fame of Massachusetts. 



Let that chartered immunity, which the State has so wisely 

 confided to your guardian care, become the corner-stone of an 

 Institution that will shed her beneficent blessings of knowledge 

 and virtue on the minds and hearts of our own heroic sons of the 

 soil. Let it be endowed with noble charities from the overflowing 

 hand, prospered by the highest truths of science, and consecrated 

 with the incense of prayers from the heart of every man who wins 

 the trophies of his life from the harvests of the earth. 



For to you, Sir, and others who may hear me, I may say, in 



