ties. They are somewhat interesting, at least, but they do not prove any 

 thing. And my mind has come to the conlusion, very recently, that if we 

 hope for any progress in agriculture, we must have a Central Board ; we 

 must have every thing arranged as it is in the Common School Board ; and 

 we must have one mind devoted altogether to agriculture. Out of the mil- 

 lion we can easily spare a single mind. What mind in the Commonwealth 

 is devoted entirely to agriculture, I mean to the broad field of agriculture, 

 to the theory and practice of agriculture ? I do not know any such one. 

 Is the President of any of our Agricultural Societies, or the Secretary, or 

 the Treasurer, thus devoted ? No! They do what they can, and we are 

 much obliged to them for it. But we want one mind devoted to the subject. 

 You have seen what the Secretary of the Board of Education accom- 

 plished. It surprised us all. Yet 1 think far greater results would be ac- 

 complished if we had a Secretary of the Board of Agriculture, who should 

 lecture, who should try to ascertain facts, and who should try to awaken a 

 general interest in the subject of agriculture. If this were the case, it* 

 such a Secretaryship were established and sustained, and such a Board 

 established, nothing than that could be more gratifying to the farmers of 

 the State. 



SPEECH OF HON. DR. GARDNER, . EX-PRESIDENT OF THE BRISTOL 

 COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



MR. PRESIDENT 



There are so many gentlemen who wish to speak, that I shall detain the 

 Convention but a moment. I felt constrained to say something, because I 

 was highly gratified at the remarks reiterated again by my worthy friend 

 from Princeton. The other evening we had a preliminary discussion, and 

 my honorable friend from Princeton and myself had a little controversy in 

 that meeting. The gentleman stated then, as he does now, that European 

 science and American science are very different. At that time, being very 

 modest, I hesitated very much to question the gentleman's accuracy. But 

 I did suppose then that science was science all over the world. I supposed 

 that so far as regards chemistry, geology, and all other sciences pertaining 

 to agriculture, what they had learned in Europe we might learn ; that a 

 chemist there analysing air and finding it contained oxygen, hydrogen, &c., 

 would merely find the same article essentially which a chemist analysing 

 air here would ascertain. I supposed the same with regard to agriculture. 

 My worthy friend questioned all this. Now my main object in rising was 

 to congratulate myself that my reverend friend from Amherst had backed 

 up my position. 



I hope the gentleman from Princeton will not regard me as personal, 

 but I am in favor of science. I am in favor of the resolutions also on 

 your table. I have taken occasion, as I said the other evening, to examine 

 the report of the commission, and though I was in favor of some of the 



