No. 151.] 213 



of Kentucky; for Secretaries, T. C. Munn, of Orange, N. J., and D. 

 J. Browne of Brooklyn, Long Island. 



On motion, the report was accepted and the officers appointed. 



On motion of Mr. T. B. Wakeman, Dr. Undsrhill, of Westchester 

 county, N. Y., Dr. L. A. Smith, of Essex county, N. J., Jenison G. 

 Ward, of Montgomery county, N. Y., Henry Meigs, of New-York 

 city, and Dr. H. A. Field, of Dutchess county, N. Y., were appointed a 

 committee to prepare business for the action of the Convention. 



Mr. James Darrach, of Orange county, N. Y., read a memorial on 

 the subject of agricultural education, addressed to the national con- 

 vention of farmers, gardeners and silk culturists, held in the city of 

 New-York, at the call of the American Institute, October 12, 1846. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention: — 



By resolution and appointment of an association of farmers, citi- 

 zens of Orange county, in this State, for the promotion of agricultu- 

 ral education, James Darrach, Samuel Wait, jr., and Lindley Mur- 

 ray Ferris, appear to present the following memorial, which we beg 

 leave now to submit: — 



The necessity for any education grows out of the duties which 

 man has to perform and the exigencies to which he is subject in 

 their performance. Their peculiar character determines its extent. 

 Omitting the equal constant relative ones of social life, the unequal 

 and varying duties and exigencies of the arts and professions require 

 an unequal extent and varying character of education. He that pur- 

 sues an art whose materials are simple and always under like condi- 

 tions, requires a less extent of education than he who pursues an art 

 whose materials are complex and under varying conditions; and thus 

 in proportion to that complexity and range of conditions. 



Applying these simple truths to the farmer, we arrive at once to 

 the most cogent proof that he requires an extent of education unsur- 

 passed by any other profession. Soil, gaseous compounds and their 

 products, his materials, are the most complex. Light, heat, electri- 

 city, moisture, his conditions, are the most susceptible and variable; 

 whilst both materials and conditions are alike betimes subjects and 

 lords of that inscrutable power, vitality. 



It is not now necessary to draw upon the other fruit/ul sources of 

 evidence to establish the necessity which the farmer has for a large 



