542 [Assembly 



A distinguished citizen of Massachusetts has recently presented to 

 Harvard College a donation of unequaled munificence, for the purpose 

 of establishing a school of practical science. I trust it may not be 

 long before there shall be established, somewhere in our country, a 

 school of practical agricultural instruction, — a school which shall 

 afford the farmer that advantage which almost all others enjoy, and 

 that is the opportunity of learning by the experience of others, of 

 being taught in a thorough and enlightened manner the great princi- 

 ples and scientific truths,. as well as practiced in the details of his 

 occupation. May I venture to add what the place and the occasion 

 suggest, that when such an institute shall be created, it will be looked 

 for not far from this, the great capital of the new world. 



It need not be said that no nation can be independent which relies 

 on foreign supplies for food. Let us for a moment contemplate the 

 greatest empire, I believe I may say, that the world has ever seen, 

 the British. Its po'-ver has been described by those capable of de- 

 scribing great things, and we all know it, how great it is; those 

 worlds which Alexander sighed for, have owned its sway; language 

 can hardly exaggerate its greatness — continents are its provinces — 

 and yet with all this might and dominion, with all its fleets and ar- 

 mies, all its Indies, East and West, its islands and its fortresses, com- 

 manding so many seas, how near its heart is a disease which always 

 threatens its existence. Suppose the late famine in Ireland and Scot- 

 land had occurred during a time of war. What is valor, wnat war- 

 like skill and power, what all collections of destructives against a 

 foe like famine? Not all the cannon of England could force supplies 

 of food from other lands, nor all her bayonets prevent that result, 

 which has so often proved the ruin of great states — domestic com- 

 motion. 



It is a conviction of this necessity of a home supply of food, un- 

 der all circumstances, which occasions such attention to be given to 

 the subject of agriculture, both in England and on the continent of 

 Europe. Modified by political and social circumstances, all Europe 

 is striving by agricultural improvement to reach a common result. 



The two leading countries, England and France, are trying two 

 great experiments in the production of food; both having in view the 

 same object, but seeking it by means wholly diverse. 



In England the great body of the land is held in a few hands and 

 in large quantities; in France it is divided up into almost infinitesi- 



