HISTORICAL ADDRESS.

HON. CHARLES G. DAVIS.

Our learned friend who has just addressed you, has discoursed upon 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 cargo 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 ofthe 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 belongeth 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 England Memorial, Appendix, note L.

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 relationship to fact, in his "Courtship of Miles Standish" pictures Priscilla 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 Longfellow'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 provision 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 trotting 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 telegraph 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.

On 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 public 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 establishment contributes doubly to the increase of improvements, by stimulating 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 accordingly 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 Academy 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 1817, to the honor of Massachusetts be it stated, the Berkshire Agricultural Society, under the lead of Elkanah Watson, presented a memorial to Congress in favor of a National Board of Agriculture, by the Hon. John M. Hurlbut, their representative. 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

Mr.

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 thereabouts, and afterwards what is known as a Commissioner of Agriculture; and during the last winter the Democratic House of Representatives 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 promoting Agriculture was established in Philadelphia, in 1785, and seven years after, the "Massachusetts Society for promoting Agriculture," was incorporated, March 7, 1792. The New York Agricultural Society was incorporated the following year. I learn that an Agricultural Society was also incorporated in South Carolina during the last century.

In 1803 the "Western Society of Middlesex Husbandmen" formed in 1794 was incorporated, with a provision that members of the Massachusetts Society should be honorary members. A voluntary Agricultural Association was established at Sturbridge in 1799, one at Kennebec in 1791 and one in Brookfield in 1807; and some other voluntary 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 October, 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, organized 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.

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 premiums 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 education 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 descendant of Gov. Winslow 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 Commonwealth. 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, nor 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