18' [Assemble 



" This species of establishment contributes doubly to the increase 

 of improvement, by stimulating to enterprise and experiment, and 

 by drawing to a common centre, the results everywhere of individual 

 skill and observation, and spreading them thence over the whole na- 

 tion. Experience accordingly has shown, that they are very cheap 

 instruments of immense national benefits." 



Notwithstanding the all pervading veneration for this great man, 

 and the power of his opinions over the whole civilized world, more 

 than half a century has elapsed, and not a movement has been made 

 to carry into effect this most wholesome recommendation. We be- 

 lieve more has been written and published by the American Institute 

 to call public attention to his advice, than all that has been written 

 and published within that period beside. Until recently an apathy 

 has rested on the farmers, from which it seemed impossible to rouse 

 them, but the results of improved agriculture, within a few years, in 

 portions of Europe, under the guidance of science and practical 

 skill, has opened the eyes of many reflecting agriculturists, and in 

 fact of all classes, and the press has not withheld its formidable 

 power. Experience has satisfied incredulity, that knowledge is as 

 requisite for the husbandman as for any other occupation, and that 

 its principles and practice should both be taught in seminaries of 

 instruction, on ground devoted to the purpose. 



The most cheering accounts of the benefits of such teachings reach 

 us every day. In our country the spirit of improvement is most 

 strikingly exemplified in the machines and implements devised to 

 relieve the cultivators of the ground from the drudgeries to which 

 they have heretofore been subjected. 



It is our deliberate opinion, that at this time a college or school, 

 and an experimental farm, with suitable instructors, practical and 

 scientific, are imperiously called for. The reasons for which are 

 summarily expressed in the following extract from our petition to 

 your honorable body, which has been signed by more than nineteen 

 out of twenty of the thousands to whom it has been presented, show- 

 ing a unanimity of sentiment that makes it an exception to almost 

 any other subject. Hundreds of anxious parents are inquiring, 

 Will your petition be passed over another year? Why the delay? 

 The Legislature is now drawing near its close. Has the bill passed 

 either House? When will it be taken up? 



