No. 216.] 479 



professions, and last, but not least, the daily labor of that mighty 

 crowd, who swarm in the busy city, and to w-hich they yield the 

 ceaseless hum and nimble capital. A great majority of these drew 

 the first sweet breath among the mountains and valleys, meadows 

 and cornfields. And what constantly supplies the fearful havoc made 

 by wear and tear, disease and death in your ever vacillating but in- 

 cessantly replenished population? The heavy contributions that you 

 levy on the rural masses. 



Well may you feel a deep solicitude for the physical, moral, and 

 intellectual cultivation and improvement of those who toil in the 

 field, and your policy is far sighted in beginning at the foundation, 

 for if you expect the streams to be pure and limpid, the springs 

 must be fed from crystal fountains. Let us stand on the educational 

 platform, as there is yet abundance of room for the incorporation of 

 the liberal arts with agriculture and its kindred pursuits. It would 

 seem an unmerited reflection on this enlightened period to speak 

 much in behalf of assisting young men destined for the productive 

 classes, in the acquisition of those branches of knowledge which 

 the community demand. For whatever unfounded prejudices which 

 may have heretofore prevailed in certain quarters and made a faint 

 show against rural economy, as a science to be taught as an elegant 

 and useful pursuit, have at last subsided, and there is a deep and 

 abiding conviction, among the sober an J thinking multitude, that the 

 liberal arts should be enlisted in the service of agriculture. 



The public have already been put in possession of ray views of an 

 agricultural school, and experimental and model farm. And it 

 would seem a mere recurrence to the same topics of argument, to 

 repeat them in this stage of my observations. However, allow me 

 here to say that this is my only source of regret, that the published 

 document which came from my hands did not find in me an advocate 

 commensurate with its momentous and lasting importance. 



I ask the indulgence of this audience for a little time who liave 

 listened to me with the kindest respect, and the most colourable in- 

 ference to be drawn from this, is that they take a lively concern in 

 that art by which human life is sustained, and not to the manner in 

 which this subject is presented to their candid and deliberate con- 

 sideration. 



It must come to your observation, gentlemen, that I 'am a friend to 

 a judicious and elevated agricultural education. And that the plan 

 of its execution and completion be blended with a regular and pa- 



