No. 4.] AGRICULTUKAL EDUCATION. 349 



mature a system for the government thereof, with the requisite 

 studies to be pursued at the same, and to ascertain what laws 

 and regulations would be necessary and proper to put the same 

 into successful operation. 



Mesolved, That the said commissioners be directed to con- 

 sider the expediency of establishing an agricultural and statis- 

 tical department, in our state government, that shall maintain 

 a similar relation to the interests of agriculture, and other in- 

 dustrial pursuits, that the board of education does to our system 

 of common school instruction ; what appropriations, if any, may 

 be necessary, on the part of the Commonwealth, to secure in- 

 struction in this science, in our medical and other colleges, 

 and normal schools; whether any further aid should be granted 

 to local agricultural and horticultural societies; whether in- 

 struction in agriculture can properly be introduced into the 

 common schools; and by what other and proper means this 

 branch of industry, so important to the Commonwealth, and 

 so intimately connected with the welfare of the people, may 

 best be promoted. 



Resolved, That the said commissioners report the result of 

 their deliberations to his excellency the governor, in season to 

 be communicated to the Legislature at the commencement of 

 their next session. And the said commissioners shall present 

 all their accounts to the governor and council, to be by them 

 audited and allowed, as they may deem just. 



Resolved, That the said commissioners consider the expe- 

 diency of appropriating the property of the Commonwealth 

 in lands, in the state of Maine, or any other available resources, 

 to the general purposes of education, including instruction in 

 agriculture, and to the support of charitable institutions. 



The report, of the commissioners, making 105 printed 

 pages, was transmitted to the Legislature in January, 185L 

 It was signed by Commissioners Marshall P. Wilder, Edward 

 Hitchcock, Samuel A. Eliot, Thomas E. Payson and Eli 

 Warren.^ 



This report contained a])0ut 60 printed pages concerning 

 the agricultural institutions in Europe, with about 20 pages 

 of " remarks upon the facts," by Commissioner Hitchcock. 

 Some of the more pertinent of these ' ' remarks " are briefly 

 noted : ^ — 



» House, No. 13, January, 1851. * Ibid., pp. 68-88. 



