156 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



LEGISLATIVE AGRICULTURAL 



MEETING. 



[Reported for the New England Farmer hy Thos. Beadlet.J 



The fifth meeting of the present series of the 

 Legislative Agricultural Society was hold on Mon- 

 day evening in the Representatives' Hall at the 

 State House, and a good audience, among -which 

 ■were many ladies, was in attendance. 



The meeting was called to order by Hon. H. 

 Nash, of Williamsburg, who introduced Ricn- 

 ARD S. Fay, Esq., of Lynn, as Chairman of the 

 evening. 



Mr. Fay on taking the chair announced the 

 subject for discussion, "Agricultural Education." 

 He said that at a previous meeting when the ques- 

 tion "how to make farming pleasant and profita- 

 ble," had been discussed, he had stated many of 

 his views on the present subject, and his remarks 

 would necessarily be somewhat of a statistical 

 character now. He stated that education must 

 be considered not incidentally, but in its capacity 

 in improving agriculture — not in the common 

 idea, but the best method in which it should be 

 fui-nished. 



Before we get the true estimate of its impor- 

 tance we must consider agriculture itself ; it must 

 be socially and politically considered, although, 

 said the speaker, it is almost ridiculous to speak 

 of it in this light, as it is so patent to all. We 

 read of its importance every day, and j'ct there 

 is no act — no action. It is the most important 

 matter, not alone in this State and country, but 

 in the whole world. 



Agriculture, said he, is the instrument that sus- 

 tains mankind ; it feeds them — it clothes them ; 

 and it is that upon Avhich the civil and political 

 existence of the world depends. 



Mr. Fay said it was his confirmed opinion that 

 agriculture was underrated by those who were em- 

 ployed in it : and he alluded to what Mr. Webster 

 said in relation to it, on his return from England, 

 when addressing an agricultural meeting in that 

 hall : "That there was no man in England so high 

 as to be independent of that great interest ; and 

 no man so low as not to be affected by its decline," 

 &c. If, said Mr. Fay, agriculture is so impor- 

 tafit, the means by which it can be made more so 

 are certainly well worthy of consideration, and 

 in doing this it might be necessai^ to inquire what 

 is done abroad and see if we are not behind in 

 our system. 



The speaker then said that by the State census 

 of 1855, or the United States census of 1850, the 

 average production of corn in Massachusetts was 

 less than 30 bushels to the acre ; but if the re- 

 turns of corn exhibited at the fau-s of the agicul- 

 tural societies was averaged, it showed 80 bushels 

 to the acre. He then spoke of the production of 

 wheat here and in Scotland, saying that, by these 



returns, the average production of wheat in this 

 State is 16 bushels to the acre, and that of the 

 whole United States more than six bushels less, 

 while in Scotland, with a climate and soil much 

 less favorable to a large yield, and many other 

 disadvantages, the average product per acre was 

 29.^ bushels. AVhile the average product of the 

 United States was only 9f bushels per aci-e, that 

 exhibited at the agricultural exhibitions in Mas- 

 sachusetts showed a yield of 33 bushels. The 

 latter shoAving what can be done, and the former 

 showing what is done. The speaker contended 

 that the reason, and the only reason, why we do 

 not equal the product of Scotland is that we do 

 not understand our business — we need education 

 and enthusiasm, and he contended that the same 

 want of education in any other pursuit would be 

 comparatively ruinous. 



He then spoke of the Albert Model Farm School 

 in Ireland, as an institution where science and ed- 

 ucation were brought to bear, and as a partial ref- 

 utation of the ridicule with which some men speak 

 of book-farming. He said this school had been 

 commenced as a means of developing the agricul- 

 tural advantages of the country, and to show the 

 success of it, he gave statistics of the returns, both 

 of this Institution, Massachusetts, the United 

 States and Scotland, from a work now in press, 

 the author of which is Mr. Henry F. French. 



Of rye, in 1850, the average yield in Massachu- 

 setts, was 13 bushels, in Scotland, 24^, at the 

 Albert School, 35. 



Of barley, the average jield in Massachusetts, 

 was 21 bushels, in the United States, 17, in Scot- 

 land, 34i, -and at the Albert School, 39i. 



Of oats, a crop, said he, on which we pride OYir- 

 selves in Massachusetts, 26 bushels, (and in 1855 

 only 21^,) in the United States 19^, in Scotland, 

 36^, and at the Albert School, seventy bushels. 



Tliis, he thought, showed that our trouble lay 

 in the want of education. 



Mr. Fay then spoke of root crops, and said 

 there was no counti-y rn the world where more at- 

 tention was given to these than in Great Britain ; 

 as there farmers understand that the root crop 

 makes the grain crop, and from his turnip crop a 

 man estimates his income from his grain. As 

 another instance of our want of knowledge of 

 root crops, Mr. Fay said that while the tm-nip 

 crop of Massachusetts only averaged 231 bushels 

 to the acre, that of Scotland was 694, and that of 

 the Albert School, 747. The speaker then allud- 

 ed to the hay crop of Massachusetts, which he es- 

 timated to be worth $20,000,000 per annum, say- 

 ing that we could produce five times as much with- 

 out decreasing the value of the article, and that 

 in five years the product of the land, by educa- 

 tion of the farmer, might be doubled, and then 

 asked whether this was not a matter worth con- 



