528 [Assembly 



But who can devise any means to effect this object equal to the 

 great Fairs of the American Institute? 



These Fairs not only operate diiectly upon individuals, but are 

 also raising up children, bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh, 

 and sending them forth to do the work of their parents. Their lineal 

 descendants having already spread over the whole country, their chil- 

 dren being known as State Fairs, their grandchildren as County 

 Fairs, and their great-grandchildren as village Horticultural Fairs; 

 all of which are now actively and systematically at work in aid of 

 their ancestors. 



Any one can therefore see, that by such an influence, improve 

 ments are nor only tendered to, but absolutely forced into, every 

 district and town of the country. How powerful, upon the agri- 

 cultural interest of the country, is the influence of the recent prac- 

 tice of entering farms for competition at the Fairs, to test their 

 general condition, arrangement and management; or, in other words, 

 to determine who is the best farmer. What a spirit of pride and 

 enterprise does it beget in the various neighborhoods of the com- 

 petitors. 



Notice the perfect operation of this system. The farmers of a 

 county strive for preference at a County Fair. The victorious com- 

 petitors, then elated with success, next appear on the battle ground 

 of the State Fair, and victory here encourages them to prepare for 

 the contest of the great Fair of the American Institute. 



But to complete the system for improving the art of agriculture, 

 and causing it to keep pace with the intelligence of the times, an 

 important and indispensable adjunct, to the means now in use, is 

 evidently still wanting. As the prejudice hanging about it is grad- 

 ually dispersed, it becomes necessary that scientific facts connected 

 with the cultivation of the earth should be settled, known and used. 

 To accomplish this, some means is required whereby the principles 

 of science can be applied to the actual practical operations of farm- 

 ing, so as to determine, with the greatest possible accuracy, the best 

 means of producing certain results, and so that the same may be 

 classified and reduced to a system, commanding general confidence 

 and for general use. The truth of this, perhaps, will not be contro- 

 verted in theory, however much it may bs disregarded in practice. 



Evidence of such a demand must have long been too abundant to 

 the observing citizen to leave him in the least doubt. The enlight- 



