arises to challenge their royal supremacy. In the construction of
temples, theatres and monuments, the Greeks by their consummate
devotion to grand public structures appear to have established classic
standards of architecture, recognized and revered throughout the civ-
ilized world excepting only those recently infected places where the
Queen Anne craze prevails.

But in comparison with the present state of the useful arts and sci-
ences, the great sources of human power, progress, and happiness,
it would seem that the ancient Greeks profited little by the early gift
of fire from Prometheus.

Certainly it would be too much to look for an advanced state of the
sciences among those who devoted science chiefly to the study of pol-
itics, or to look for much superiority in the mechanic arts among those
apparently destitute of machinery. The treatment of such . subjects
as mechanics, physics and astronomy, even by Aristotle, was nothing
less than a complete failure. They had no idea of the kinship of
the Earth to the planetary system ; and the Homeric scientific knowl-
edge of astronomy was as scanty as that of the wildest American
Indians. The hatred of the Athenian democracy by Plato much dis-
turbed his philosophy, and made him the enemy of the great princi-
ples of human freedom which now we regard as essential to the health
of all modern political development. When the Apostle Paul encoun-
tered "certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics" at



23

Athens, they did not then win more of his respect than they do now
that of the President of Princeton College ; and the New Testament
record appears to have left them in the following curt parenthesis :
"(For all the Athenians and strangers sojourning there spent their
time in nothing but either to tell or to hear some new thing.)" But
literary students are expected to find, and no doubt do find, much
compensation for any deficiencies in the " sweetness and light" af-
forded by the study of the logic and rhetoric of their greatest authors.

If I am saying something too much about the Greeks, it is only to
help the sous of farmers and of mechanics to dismiss from their
minds a prevailing error that an education in institutions where Greek
is a non-essential will to them prove of unequal rank and value to
that of institutions where it is kept constantly at the front, and who,
lacking the required preparation for it, or the time required to pre-
pare for it, may be deterred from entrance to any college. Notwith-
standing the universal prevalence of our common schools, it is
doubtful, with all of our colleges, whether the number of college
graduates, in proportion to population, is much greater than it was
one hundred years ago. I would have higher learning more widely
disseminated.

The great distinction of the ancient Greeks in the force and beau-
ty of their language, in oratory, history, poetry, sculpture, and ar-
chitecture must be conceded, as it has for ages been a perpetual mar-
vel ; but this apparently foremost race of men, within certain limita-
tions, and, in a dark age, unsurpassed in their special intellectual and
Olympian development, has been doomed to such an extreme deca-
dence that the world now attaches much less importance to the de-
scendants of Homer, Pericles and Demosthenes than to the descend-
ants of the ancient Germans whom Thucydides described as among
the lowest types of barbarians. Doubtless some reason for this de-
cadence may be found in the fact that the ancient Greeks, like our
American savages, held industrial employments as entitled to no hon-
or, and unworthy of the worshippers of the Grecian gods and god-
desses. Nowhere rejecting their good examples, let us beware of
following their "example of unbelief" in labor, or of unbelief in the
value of educated labor in promoting general morality and obedience
to law as well as in promoting the intelligence, power and beauty of the
national character.

We live in a Christian age, and do not ignorantly worship an un-
known God. We accept it as a blessing that to Adam it was or-



24

darned, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." We re-
joice in the fact that we live under a republican form of government,
where all men are equal before the law, where the income of capital
is not wholly dominant, where social conditions are not fixed by he-
redity, and where the rank of men depends upon their own personal-
ly earned and individual merits.

I should be unwilling to accept the language of Alfieri in regard to
the "man-plant born in Italy," as to me it appears that, "in no other
land is the man-plant born with more inherent vigor than in" America.

I have been, therefore, most earnestly in favor of giving to this
"inherent vigor," so largely found in the active pursuits of our coun-
try, all the sound learning practically required to develop the intel-
lect and the general character of a great people. Science is always
progressive, and never tolerates a sham. The world- wide depression
in farming everywhere brings disaster upon the unskilful farmer ;
and in New England the utmost skill, as well as knowledge of the
principles and facts of agriculture, are absolutely necessary to suc-
cess. I am glad to believe, with Carroll D. Wright, one of Massa-
chusetts' distinguished citizens, "that laborers who are able to
employ nothing but muscle are decreasing, and the status of un-
skilled labor is likely to be much improved during the next genera-
tion."

The Land-Grant Colleges are now more than equal in number to
the states of the Union, and light up some of the formerly destitute
portions of our country. In eight states where the land fund ap-
peared too limited for an independent institution, colleges have been
successfully grafted upon the healthy stock of some existing literary
institution, and in no instance has such a junction bred intestine and
internecine war. Most of the states have spontaneously aided the
colleges by furnishing necessary buildings, and also by very liberal
annual appropriations. Generous local bounties from towns and
from private individuals also, have often been received. With hard-
ly an exception these colleges are doing excellent educational work.
It is a gratification to find that the largest endowment in any state
has been husbanded most successfully, having fallen into very astute
and worthy hands, and has served, with other large bounties, to build
up the most complete and prosperous of all these institutions. I
must also add that Cornell University, to which of course I refer,
has been fortunate in her teachers as well as in her large-handed ben-
efactors, and, whenever any special want has been developed, some



25

generous friend has been ready to pour thousands after thousands in
to her lap.

The prescribed military instruction of these colleges, for each of
which a professor is now detailed from the United States army, fur-
nishes that measure of theoretical and practical knowledge necessary
for organizing and drilling companies in any future emergency of
our country, and its essential importance in a land where a merely
nominal standing army is maintained, can hardly be over-estimated,
especially if the officer detailed highly values his profession and has
executive ability. As an incident, the drill offers a healthful and
permanently beneficial discipline to students in promoting physical
development and a manly bearing, incomparably superior to that of
the gymnasium, or to that of any other athletic exercise or recrea-
tion.

In the first argument made by me in 1858 in behalf of the Land-
Grant Colleges, I pointed out the fact that there was going on an an-
nual deterioration of the soil, as it appeared by the decennial census
reports, showing a less and less number of bushels of cereals pro-
duced per acre throughout nearly all of the states. This deteriora-
tion has not been arrested, though more vigilant attention is now giv-
en. to the subject, and it is to be feared will not be wholly arrested
until the scalping system of farming, or of cropping and returning
nothing, shall no longer be profitable upon old homesteads that are
to be abandoned with the hope of a future continuance of the sys-
tem upon .the present limited prairies of the West. In various por-
tions of Europe they are giving far more liberal aid to similar insti-
tutions than that which has been accorded in the United States ; and
they are there retaining the maximum fertility of their soil. There
is no subject to our people of pro founder concern, or of more far-
reaching importance.

While it is true that the great profession of the law is most apt to
qualify men for prominent public positions, it is also true that the an-
nual supply in the legal profession is supposed to exceed the de-
mand, and that professional advancement is often provokingly slow ;
but we have it from the best authority that there is no overproduction
in the Land-Grant Colleges, that few of their graduates remain long
unemployed after leaving college. They are found in shops and on
farms, and their services are sought after as teachers, as engineers,
surveyors, foremen of shops and farms, superintendents of mines
and manufactories, and frequently they are called to lucrative posi-
4



26

tions even before they have finished their studies. This enables
them to enter more promptly into prosperous life ; and many young
ladies may be glad to know that it all tends to encourage early mar-
riages.

These colleges are thoroughly American, and for all time will be
entrusted with work annually increasing in its importance. Our arti-
sans are to contest with the skill and wealth of many nations, and
our farmers are sorely pressed by the competition of agricultural
products which cheap and rapid communication pushes to the front in
all markets both at home and abroad. To successfully withstand
this formidable rivalry, our countrymen need, and it is hoped will
here find, that fundamental instruction which is founded on the wid-
est and best experience of mankind.

Descendants as we are of the heroes who struck the blow for the
National Independence of '76, proud of the production of a written
Constitution which is esteemed by the enlightened statesmen of the
world as the foremost form of free government hitherto devised by
man, cheered by the mile-stones which mark the progress of our first
century, we may well feel, as Webster felt, that "the past is se-
cure" ; but Americans, however, cannot afford forever to have no
other ambition than to reach the goal once occupied by a people,
however distinguished, of past ages. For "to whomsoever much is
given, of him shall much be required," and the New World has been
given to us forever as an inalienable possession, where we are not
only to bridge great rivers and tunnel mountains, but to "make the
wilderness and solitary places glad." All the centuries of the future
are in reserve, under Providence, for the men of this great continent
to make their own history, and, it is to be devoutly hoped, in some
measure, to eclipse and take the lead of other nations, old or young,
in worthy achievements in all the arts of peace, and in all the glories
of manhood's ripest culture.



HISTORICAL ADDRESS.



HON. CHARLES G. DAVIS.

Our learned friend who has just addressed you, has discoursed up-
on the philosophy of agricultural education, and its progress in the
old world. It is my humbler province to present facts concerning its
advancement in our own country.

That history and human life present wonderful contrasts, great
changes, and striking parallels are trite remarks ; trite because so
true, and so instructive, and because they present themselves to the
observing mind, in tracing every subject of human interest.

In 1624 Gov. Edward Winslow brought to Plymouth in the Charity
three heifers and a bull, "which," says the historian, "were the first
neat cattle that came into New England." Soon after in 1624 James
Shirley, one of the London merchants who aided the Pilgrims, sent
over a cow for the poor of the Colony ; and other cattle came in the
Anne, and in the James, often called in the records, the "Jacob."
In 1627 a number of goats were purchased which were part of a car-
go of a ship cast away at Sagadehock ; and in the same year, May
22nd, cattle and goats of the common stock were equally divided by
lots, each lot being apportioned to thirteen persons.*



* The first lot consisted of " 4 black heifers and 2 she goats " ; the second of " the great
black cow which came in the Ann, the lesser of the 2 steers, and 2 she goats " ; third, " the
red cow, to .which they must keep her calf this year, being a bull, and two she goats";
fourth, " one of the 4 heifers which came in the Jacob " ; fifth, ,,one of the 4 heifers which
came in the Jacob, called the blind heifer, and 2 she goats"; sixth, "the lesser of the
black cows which came in the' Ann, and the biggest of the 2 steers, with 2 she goats " ;
seventh, "a black weaning calf, to which is added the calf of this year to come of the
black cow, and 2 she goats "; eighth, " a red heifer which came of the cow which belong-
eth to the poor of the Colony, the persons nominated to have half the increase, the other
half with the old stock to remain for the use of the poor; also 2 she goats"; ninth, "one
of the four black heifers that came in the Jacob, called the Smooth Horned Heifer, and 2
she goats"; tenth, "an heifer of last year and 2 she goats"; eleventh, "an heifer of last
year which was of the great black cow brought in the Ann and 2 she goats " ; twelfth, " the
great white back cow brought over with the first in the Ann and 2 she goats." New Eng-
land Memorial, Appendix, note L.



28

The last assignment raises a doubt whether the first cattle did not
come over in the Anne, upon which question antiquarians differ. But
they agree that Gov. Winslow brought the first cattle.

The poet, Longfellow whose fancy never recognized a close rela-
tionship to fact, in his "Courtship of Miles Standish" pictures Pris-
cilla Mullens, the bride, as performing her wedding journey to the
home of John Alden on a white bull. Longfellow here made a bull
in every sense of the word. In the first place, at the time of John
Alden's marriage there were no cattle in New England, and secondly,
the first cattle imported were of a dark or red variety. The
poet's poetic license was a "white lie" indeed. This bull of Long-
fellow's must be the same which crossed the sea with Europa on his
back on her wedding journey with Jupiter. It is probably kept by
poets for wedding journeys.

In 1623 the Colony of Plymouth was so straitened by lack of pro-
vision that it was reduced to a pint of corn, and lived for months
without bread. Game and fish furnished their principal sustenance ;
and they gave thanks that they "could suck of the abundance of the
sea, and of the treasures hidden in the sand." The first comers had
no plows. Their implements were scanty, poor, clumsy and heavy.
They at first used a shell for a hoe as the Indians did. Cast steel
had not then been invented. Pumpkins, squashes, and tobacco were
unknown to them, and potatoes were a luxury just introduced into
England. This was the agriculture of New England two hundred
and sixty years ago.

What need of worrying you with statistics of what it is to-day !
The contrast is complete enough if I tell you that by the last census
before the establishment of our College, the agricultural products of
Massachusetts alone were thirty-two millions of dollars, and the value
of her live stock over twelve millions. We have besides repaid the
debt to England by the export of sheep, and cattle, and the fast trot-
ting horse, and, besides the finest agricultural implements in the world,
have added the sewing-machine to every farmer's fireside, improved
every loom in the world, and presented its inhabitants with the tele-
graph and the telephone, and the fastest sailing vessels which have
yet been known.

From the earliest settlement of this country to the presidency of
Washington there is no record of any active efforts to improve our
agriculture, except by a few feeble attempts at agricultural journals,
and scattering agricultural associations generally of a social char-
acter.



29

Oil the 7th December, 1796, Washington in his Annual Message,
at the Second Session of the Fourth Congress, read these words :

" It will not be doubted that with reference either to individual or
national welfare, agriculture is of primary importance. In proportion
as nations advance in population, and other circumstances of maturity,
this truth becomes more apparent, and renders the cultivation of the
soil more and more an object of public patronage. Institutions for
promoting it grow up supported by the public purse ; and to what
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 pub-
lic characters, charged with collecting and diffusing information, and
enabled by premiums, and small pecuniary aid, to encourage and
assist a spirit of discovery and improvement. This species of estab-
lishment contributes doubly to the increase of improvements, by stim-
ulating to enterprise and experiment, and by drawing to a common
centre the results everywhere of individual skill and observation, and
spreading them- thence over the whole nation. Experience accord-
ingly has shown that they are very cheap instruments of immense
national importance.

I have heretofore proposed to the consideration of Congress the
expediency of establishing a National University, and also a Military
Academy."

The propositions for a National University and a National Board
of Agriculture, were referred to a Committee, and no report so far
as I can learn was ever made upon the subject. The Military Acad-
emy became an Institution. Life was given to that which teaches
men to kill their fellow men, but no encouragement to that science
by which all men live. Here again is presented a striking contrast
in our history. In 18 17, to the honor of Massachusetts be it stated, the
Berkshire Agricultural Society, under the lead of Elkanah Watson, pre-
sented a memorial to Congress in favor of a National Board of Agri-
culture, by the Hon. John M. Hurlbut, their representative. Mr.
Hurlbut was Chairman of a Select Committee on the subject, and
reported in its favor; but although sustained by others with ability,
the project was defeated by an overwhelming vote, owing to the
constitutional scruples of some, views of expediency by others, and
entire indifference and want of appreciation of the magnitude and
importance of the world's most vital interest. Mr. Hurlbut stated
that he was met with sneers and ridicule, particularly from Southern



30

members for urging this subject. The same year Mr. Madison wrote,
" I have never taken into particular consideration the expediency or
the best plan of such an institution, being among those who do not
view it as within the powers vested in the General Government."
And now what a change ! We have had an Agricultural Department
of the National Government in the Patent Office since 1837, or there-
abouts, and afterwards what is known as a Commissioner of Agricul-
ture ; and during the last winter the Democratic House of Represen-
tatives passed a bill establishing an Agricultural Department with a
Secretary who was to be a member of the President's Cabinet. What
has become of Mr. Madison's constitutional scruples?

In the Patent Office report for 1847, Mr. Charles L. Fleischmann
made the first elaborate report on Agricultural Schools which he had
visited abroad. During the last century the earliest Society for pro-
moting Agriculture was established in Philadelphia, in 1785, and
seven years after, the " Massachusetts Society for promoting Agri-
culture," was incorporated, March 7, 1792. The New York Agri-
cultural Societ}' was incorporated the following year. I learn that
an Agricultural Society was also incorporated in South Carolina dur-
ing the last century.

In 1803 the "Western Society of Middlesex Husbandmen" formed
in 1794 was incorporated, with a provision that members of the Mas-
sachusetts Society should be honorary members. A voluntary Agricul-
tural Association was established at Sturbridge in 1799, one at Ken-
nebec in 1791 and one in Brookfield in 1807 ; and some other volun-
tary Agricultural Associations had doubtless been formed in New
York, and Massachusetts previous to 1807. Meanwhile in 1801, a
suggestion was made by an anonymous writer to the Massachusetts
Society that a fair be held on Cambridge common in May and Octo-
ber, and bounties given for certain articles. This plan was not to
have shows merely, but stated open markets for the sale of agricultu-

NOTE. Among the earlier contributors to agricultural education and interests I should
not omit to mention the New York Horticultural Society, organized in 1818, which. was the
first society of its kind in the United States ; the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, organ-
ized in 1827, and incorporated March 24, 1831. The American Pomological Society, first
known as the American Congress of Fruit Growers, was organized in 1848, and the Mass.
Horticultural Society in 1829.

NOTE. Nor do I overlook the great good which the various agricultural journals of the
country have done in exciting the interest of the people in agricultual knowledge. I can
only mention the " American Farmer," published in Baltimore in 1819, and ever since,
which was the first regular agricultural journal published in this country, and the
" New England Farmer," which originated in 1822. The later journals are too numerous
to mention.



31

ral products. The same year 1801 brought forth a suggestion before
the Massachusetts Society for the permanent endowment and support
of a professorship of Natural History, and a Botanic Garden at
Cambridge, which were in fact established in 1804, whilst before
1804 the Massachusetts Society had commenced the award of premi-
ums for agricultural products, and had entered upon that generous
and patriotic career of encouragement to our farmers which has done
so much for the agriculture of New England, and the improvement
of its stock.

It was in 1807 that a new era in the progress of agricultural edu-
cation dawned in New England, which at first little noticed, was
destined to mark an eventful change, and to hasten the progress
to an agricultural development. Up to this time so far as can be
learned, no agricultural society had thought of a " cattle show " with
premiums to be awarded in public, but the societies had confined
themselves to printed publications, and to awards for essays and field
crops, and for the importation of the best sheep. In the autumn of
1807 Mr. Elkanah Watson, a native of Plymouth and a direct descend-
ant of Gov. Win slow who in 1624 had brought the three heifers and
the bull to Plymouth, procured the first pair of merino sheep which
had been introduced into Berkshire, and perhaps the whole Common-
wealth. Col. Humphreys of Connecticut, then late minister to Spain,
had imported 75 ewes and 27 rams in 1802, and one Seth Adams had
the same year claimed of the Massachusetts society a premium for
two merino sheep imported from France. But the records of the
society do not show that any premium was awarded Mr. Adams, aor
indeed that they were ever in the state.

Mr. Watson gave notice of an exhibition of his two sheep on the
public square in Pittsfield. He wrote that " many farmers and even
females were attracted to this first novel and humble exhibition.
From this lucky incident I reasoned thus : If two animals are capable
of exciting so much attention, what would be the effect of a display
on a large scale of different animals ? The farmers present responded
to my remarks with approbation. We thus became acquainted, and
from that moment to the present have agricultural fairs and cattle
shows, with all their connections, predominated in my mind." On the
1st of August, 1810 an appeal drawn by Mr. Watson and signed by
26 persons appointed an exhibition of stock on the 1st of October.
This effort was successful, and resulted in a charter of the Berkshire
Agricultural Society the ensuing winter of 1811. In the September



32

following a formal and extended festival was held with
of 69 oxen drawing a plow held by the oldest man in the county, a
band of music, the society bearing appropriate ensigns, each member
decorated with a badge of two heads of wheat in his hat, and the