636 [ASSEMBLV 



the honorable chairman of the committee has taken in this report. 

 Four fifths of our people are agriculturists. All the institutes of our 

 country have their support from the agriculturists. Yet agriculture 

 has always been neglected by governments ! We have passed 

 through what may be termed ages of military glory, rapine and 

 murders; through ages of superstition, monastic ages, and through- 

 out all these, the common w^elfare of mankind, especially as depend- 

 ent on the mighty resources of agriculture, have always been neg- 

 lected or contemned, which special objects have absorbed the care 

 and consumed tije treasures of governments. We now have the 

 sciences among us, but we do not diflfuse them among men. Science 

 teaches us the operations of light in the growth and the varied beau- 

 tiful colors of plants and flowers, as well as unpracticed and generally 

 unknown methods of producing abundant productions from our soil. 

 And let me say that the age we are now in, is comparatively one of 

 peace, one aiming at an accumulation of human happiness, to in- 

 crease and vary production, the very substratum of public and pri- 

 vate happiness, and prosperity. Our plan of agricultural education 

 does not propose to make hermits, but to prepare young men for 

 every vicissitude of life. Our common schools ought to contain the 

 best books on agricultural subjects, and the instruction ought to be 

 made thorough and practical. 



Mr. Wakeman. Proper instructors are needed for our common 

 schools, in the art of agriculture; such instructors are yet to be found 

 by such a system as we now expect to establish. 



Gen, Tallmadge moved that a committee be appointed to whom 

 shall be referred the report of the Hon. Nathan Burchard, to consider 

 and report to the club what is necessary and proper to be done in 

 aid of the great object of that report. 



The club appointed on that committee, David Brush, John L. Hyde, 

 and Gen. Chandler. 



Subjects for next meeting: 



First, Dairy Husbandry, before all otl er subjects; next, Millet, 

 its culture. 



The club adjourned to 3d Tuesday of May, 1847. 



