ADDRESSES 273 



Again, at a meeting held three years later, January 16, 

 1856, a committee previously appointed to consider and 

 report to the Board what further measures, if any, were 

 needed to subserve the cause of agriculture in this Com- 

 monwealth, made the following report, which was ac- 

 cepted : 



Having given the subject their careful consideration, the 

 committee are of the opinion that nothing would be better 

 calculated to advance the cause of agriculture and foster 

 and direct the growing interest therein throughout the com- 

 munity at large, than the immediate establishment of an 

 experimental farm, and, as soon as the funds shall permit, 

 of an agricultural school in connection therewith, where 

 both the science and the practice of farming may be taught 

 in all their departments. 



Your committee do not propose to set forth in detail 

 the many reasons which have led them to this conclusion, 

 but they will be pardoned in suggesting one or two of the 

 most important: 



First. There is not at the present time, to the knowledge 

 of your committee, any society or board existing in the 

 Commonwealth authorized by act of the Legislature to 

 hold funds to be applied exclusively to the advancement of 

 scientific and practical agriculture or the diffusion of know- 

 ledge connected with rural economy. 



Secondly. In the opinion of your committee, the time 

 has arrived when the wants of the community demand 

 something of this kind; a time when the learned profes- 

 sions seem more than full; when the attention of our citi- 

 zens, and in particular of our young men, is being more than 



