10 



comes at once the duty and policy of the Commonwealth to establish and ma 

 such institutions for the benefit of all ils inhabitants. 



Resolved, 5. That the several plans for an Agricultural School, recently rej 

 by the Board of Commissioners appointed for that purpose, are worthy the pro 

 consideration of the people of Massachusetts, and their Representatives in the ' 

 ral Court, as indicating the feasibility and practicability of an establishment v 

 that exalted character which the State has secured by the endowment of kindr 

 stitutions, designed, like these, for the diffusion of useful knowledge amon 

 people. 



Resolved, G. That inasmuch as Agriculture is the chief occupation of her cit: 

 the Commonwealth, in the organization of its government, should be provided ^ 

 department of Agriculture, with offices and honors commensurate with the impoi 

 of the duties to be discharged, of the abilities to be required, and of the labors 

 performed. 



Resolved, 7. That the several County and local Agricultural Societies, (a! 

 the adopted children of the Commonwealth,) by their pioneer efforts in diffusin 

 fu! knowledge among the people ; by their agency in arousing and directing the 

 gies of the farmer in the course of modern improvement, and by the encourag 

 they offer to every worthy effort of agricultural skill and industry, recommend 

 selves still more powerfully to the protection and patronage of the Legislature. 



Resolved, 8. That the Convention respectfully suggests to the Legislature th 

 priety and expediency of reserving the entire proceeds of the sales of the public 

 of the Commonwealth, from and after the period when the Common School 

 shall have reached the maximum fixed by the act of 1834, for purposes of < 

 tion and charity, with a view to extending that aid and encouragement to a sysl 

 Agricultural Education which the importance of the subject so imperiously det: 



Upon motion of Mr. SEWALL, the resolutions were taken up in ( 

 with the exception of those relating to Agricultural Schools, which 

 deferred until the last. 



The first resolve was read and adopted on motion of Mr. KEY 

 Dedham. 



The second resolution was next read, whereupon Col. PAGE, Pres 

 of the Bristol County Society, addressed the Convention as follows: 



MR. PRESIDENT 



I do not like to have this resolve pass in silence. I think there is 

 ter there which will commend itself to the judgment of every gent' 

 who has given the subject of agriculture and Agricultural Societies in 

 sachusetts any consideration. We have had Agricultural Societn 

 years, in various parts of this Commonwealth. Each has gone on, 

 own way, to accomplish the good objects which are proposed by all. 

 sir, the action of each of these Societies has been isolated, confined 

 self, communicated, with very few exceptions, to nobody, except thon 

 happened to be present at the annual exhibitions ; and even, sir, wh 

 report is annually prepared, as it has been in the two years of the exic 

 of your Society, and in Essex and one or two others, it is a local r 

 after all, and finds its way into the hands of but very few of the pra 

 farmers of the Commonwealth. The result of this state of things,- 

 want of centralization, this want of cooperation, has limited the benef 



