18 Address. 



and truly represented in the General Court by men who will see that their Col- 

 lege suffers no detriment, and that its essential wants are promptly supplied 



Every farmer should secure a copy of each annual report of the trustees, 

 that he may learn the facts respecting the real condition and working of 

 the institution, and so be able justly to appreciate its merits, in spite of the 

 unfair criticisms, which sooner or later assails every enterprise under State 

 direction, however beneficent its object or judicious its management. 



Mr. President, there can be no more appropriate, or eloquent, conclusion 

 to these remarks than the peroration of an address on Agricultural Educa- 

 tion, delivered before this Society in 1853 by the lion. Henry L. Dawes, 

 who has been so long your illustrious representative in Congress, and who, 

 in 1862, efficiently aided in securing from the national government a munifi- 

 cent endowment for the very institution for which he then so ably plead. 

 May his exhortations and warnings add ten-fold force to the words already 

 spoken, and stimulate every farmer present to a faithful performance of his du- 

 ty toward the Mass. Agricultural College and the cause it represents. 



"Gentlemen, I have sought on this occasion, to draw your attention to 

 your position and duties, and to the radical defects and short-comings in all 

 our struggles to elevate the standard of agriculture in this Commonwealth. 

 I have also attempted to point out the remedy to be a systematic, a 

 thorough, and a liberal professional education for the farmer, furnished by 

 the State, co-operating with private munificence. And on an institution 

 thus founded and endowed, I have endeavored to ground your hopes for the 

 regeneration of the soil of the Commonwealth, and for the proper elevation 

 and true dignity of her sons." 



"And permit me, finally, to add, that it lies with yourselves, under a gra- 

 cious Providence, to say w r hen this golden age shall be ushered in. For 

 though you cannot build this great temple with your own hands, yet you 

 may give tone to the policy of our common government, which can lay its 

 foundations deep as perpetuity, and spread its ample arches broad as the 

 land. You are, in the multitude, as well as in the indivdual, the architects 

 of your own fortune." 



"You may, by indifference, suffer the half finished walls of this temple to 

 tumble down in neglect, or rise, if at all, disproportioned and incongruous, 

 repulsive to the votaries at its shrine, inefficient in its influence, and abor- 

 tive in its mission — or you can, if you will, adorn and beautify its rising 

 columns, crowd its broad and lofty portals with devotees bringing their 

 sheaves with them and fixing their trophies in its very dome, till it shall be- 

 come the just pride and, under God, the ultimate preserver of the Com- 

 monwealth. Build ye, for yourselves and for posterity." 



