14 THF. rXITF.D STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



had no very clear notion as to what form such encourage- 

 ment might take. 



In 1793, the British government, through the earnest 

 efforts of Sir John Sinclair, at that time a member of Parha- 

 mcnt, rather rehictantly consented to the estabHshment of a 

 central board of agriculture. Sir John was made president 

 of this board, and under his guidance, it seems to have been 

 successful until 1S17 when, through failure of appropria- 

 tions, it went out of existence. 



It was due to the example of this board and the subse- 

 quent correspondence between himself and Sinclair that 

 Washington, in his last annual message to Congress in 1796, 

 was able to make a much more urgent and definite appeal in 

 behalf of agriculture. In this message he said : 



It will not be doubted that with reference either to individual or 

 national welfare agriculture is of primary importance. In propor- 

 tion as nations advance in population and other circumstances of 

 maturity this truth becomes more apparent, and renders the cultiva- 

 tion of the soil more and more an object of public patronage. In- 

 stitutions for promoting it grow up, supported by tlie public purse ; 

 and to wiiat object can it be dedicated with greater propriety? 

 Among the means which have been employed to this end none have 

 been attended with greater success than the establishment of boards 

 ('composed of proper characters) charged with collecting and dif- 

 fusing information, enabled by premiums and small pecuniary aids 

 to encourage and assist a soirit of discovery and improvement by 

 stimulating to enterprise and experiment, and by drawing to a 

 common center the results ever3'where of individual skill and ob- 

 servation and spreading them thence over the whole nation. Experi- 

 ence accordingly has shown that they are very clicap instruments of 

 immense national benefits. ^2 



This part of Washington's message was favorably re- 

 ceived in both branches of Congress. In the House of 

 Representatives, it was referred to a committee which re- 

 ported, recommending a plan, the principal parts of which 

 were, that an agricultural society consisting of congressmen, 

 federal judges, heads of departments, and such other 

 persons as might be eligible be established at the scat of 

 government. Annual meetings were to be held at which a 

 President and secretary and a board of not more than thirty 

 persons — to be called a " Board of Agriculture " — were to 



" Ibid., vol. i, p. 202. 



