«324 TltAu\SACTIOAS OF THE AilERICAN LySUTUTE. 



estimated to ultimately realize a sum equal to at least from three to 

 four or more millions of dollars, and all this for devoting one wing ot 

 the institution to be called an "agricultural department," and in an 

 institution located forty miles from any main thoroughfare of travel, 

 and therefore inconvenient for visits of obse?'vation, a most important 

 feature of an institution of practical development. 



At Washington the government has established a horticultural, 

 experimental garden, and devotes it to the demonstration of what 

 may be received as practical and what sliould be rejected as other- 

 wise ; thus endorsing my experimental theory as applied to agricul- 

 ture on a broader scale. 



In addition to this horticultural experiment, Congress has established 

 an " agricultural department," and devoted the appropriation neces- 

 sary to conduct it, to the collection of statistics and agricultural 

 knowledge and development, and for diffusing the information thus 

 obtained through monthly reports; thus, again, endorsing an import- 

 ant feature of my plan for experimental farms. 



Yet I regard this statistical information as coming within the range 

 of commercial relations and interests quite as much as that of agri- 

 culture ; and although desirable and even commendable, it only 

 touches the outskirts of the great waHt of agriculture. 



It is to tliis demonstrative, experimental system, thoroughly car- 

 ried out and the results widely diffused among the community, that I 

 look for that impetus to agriculture which nothing heretofore pro- 

 posed has ever accomplished ; and, if I am right, may we not hope to 

 see agricultural knowledge as well defined and systematized as other 

 practical business pursuits? But without some more efficient aid to- 

 determine facts and acquire exact knowledge, agriculture must 

 remain as now, an undefined and uncertain pursuit, lacking both in- 

 attractions and successes, as compared with others open to and- 

 abstracting our young men from rural labor and country life. Is not 

 this, then, the cause, or one of the prime reasons, why our cities and 

 towns, the trade shops, professions and manufiictories are crowded,, 

 while the rural districts and the farm are deserted? 



A brief glance at the actual state of existing knowledge in relation 

 to the most common occurrences and subjects of discussion that ariso 

 weekly in this Club, will suffice, I tliink, to show the want if not the 

 necessity of greater certainty and more exact knowledge in agri- 

 culture. 



About a year ago Mr. Greeley introduced tlie sul)ject of deep plow- 



