STATE AGRICULTURAL ROOMS, Saturday, September 17th, 1864. Ordered, that a certificate of merit be awarded to S. F. DeWitt and M. D. Brooks, for their efficient police services. Ordered, that no duplicate diplomas be issued by the Secretary. January 3d, 1865. Members present-N. J. Turney, President, W. F. Greer, Rec. Secretary, T. C. Jones, Jas. Fullington, Wm. B. McClung, D. E. Gardner, W. B. Putnam, D. McMillan. The President appointed Messrs. Gardner and McClung committee on Executive Committee's accounts, Greer and Putnam, committee on Treasurer's accounts, McMillan and Fullington, committee on Cor. Secretary's accounts, Jones and Taylor, committee on Farm Crops, Gardner, Jones and McClung, committee on Commended Premiums. The committee on Treasurer's accounts reported as follows: The undersigned, committee to examine accounts and vouchers and the vouchers of David Taylor, Treasurer of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture, beg leave to report as follows: Having examined the account of the Corresponding Secretary, we find it correct, with a balance due him of $356 63. D. MCMILLAN, JAMES FULLINGTON, Committee. CONVENTION OF DELEGATES. TUESDAY, JAN'Y 3, 1865. The President, N. J. Turney, Esq., called the meeting to order, at 10 o'clock, A. M., and immediately proceeded to business. The Secretary called the roll, when the following delegates were found to be present: COUNTY. Miami Morgan Morrow Muskingum Noble Portage Putnam Richland Ross Seneca Shelby Stark Summit... Union... Washington Wayne Wyandot..... NAME. .W. H. Witter.. .A. H. Wrenn .B. S. Runyon .J. L. Greene.. .J. W. Robinson AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. COUNTY SEAT. Medina. Troy. .McConnellsville Zanesville. ..Caldwell. ..Circleville. .Ravenna. Eaton. Mansfield. Chillicothe. Fremont. Tiffin. ...Sidney. .Akron. .New Philadelphia. Marietta. Wooster. ...Upper Sandusky. Judge T. C. Jones said that he believed the Secretary had a paper prepared on the subject of Agricultural Colleges, and he presumed this would be as convenient a time as any in which to read it. J. H. Klippart, Esq., the Secretary, then came forward and read as follows: Since mankind have become civilized, there has been no one industrial pursuit, which has not only been found to be indispensably necessary, but which at the same time has contributed more to promote the comfort, wellbeing, and consequent happiness and progress of the human race than agriculture. It is the foundation upon which the entire superstructure of enlightenment and refinement has been built. By and through it the arts and sciences have been developed and brought to their present state of perfection, for it has necessarily engendered commerce; and commerce has not only covered every sea and ocean with broad white sails, bearing the agricultural products from one country to another, but in its turn has developed the art of ship-building in all its various stages of improvement, until we have attained to the perfection of iron steamers, together with most the other mechanic arts; it has developed the sciences of astronomy and of meteorology, which in turn react upon agriculture. Commerce stimulated by agriculture, has dug our canals, and spread a net-work of railroads over every civilized and enlightened country. All the physical sciences owe their development to agriculture, and have in times past, and do yet, not only minister to our comfort and happiness, but serve to the further development of the better qualities of our nature. Whilst none of these attributes of the important part played by agriculture in the civilized world has ever been disputed by reflecting minds, there is at the same time no industrial pursuit which has been so studiously neglected, and so lightly esteemed by the mass of mankind as this, the most glorious and beneficent of all human occupations. Until a comparatively recent period in the world's history, agriculture was almost entirely intrusted to bondmen and slaves, and in such hands it could not be expected that much progress would be made. So long as the natural fertility of the soil, by simply plowing and seeding, produced sufficient to support the population of the country, no improvement could reasonably be expected. Hence, so long as the population of England did not consume the entire product of the soil, no attention was given to agriculture, but it was left to plod its weary way as best it could. We find that up to the year 1770, England was an exporter of breadstuffs, and from 1770 until 1793 she produced just as much as she consumed; but from and after 1793, she became an importer of breadstuff. At this latter period her products did not suffice to supply the home demand; and we find also at about this time some of the more intelligent Englishmen were endeavoring to discover some method to increase the productiveness of the soils. Many fens and marshes were drained, and thus more arable area secured; but this did not suffice-she had arrived at that period in her history when the natural fertility of the soil would no longer maintain her population. And from this period agricultural progress may be dated in England. The same was true of the continent of Europe, in a general sense. The more intelligent of the peasantry in France-although in no sense better than English villeins, or Roman slaves-were fully convinced that if the agricultural dictatorship or directory could be wrested from the hands of the nobility and clergy, there would be no more occasion for being afflicted with a decennial famine. All persons may not be aware of the fact, that prior to the revolution of 1789, there was a death penalty affixed to what was then considered a crime, namely, to dispose of agricultural products grown in one department, to dealers or persons in an adjoining department, without a permit from the throne. In addition to this, the clergy and nobility owned about two-thirds of France, and directed, or rather dictated, how much seed should be sown to the acre, and what specific fields should be grown in specific crops-how many and what kinds of cattle should be kept on the estate. The result of this system of farming was a complete famine in every department about once in ten years. It was to correct this abuse, rather than to dethrone Louis XVI, or to drive out the church and the nobility, that the peasantry inaugurated the revolution of 1789. The position occupied by the nobility of Great Britain, (who own all the lands in England, Scotland, and Ireland), the influence of the Romish Church and the French nobility, have concealed from the world the true cause of the revolution of 1789. It was too dangerous and too humiliating to the British nobility to acknowledge that it originated in a denial of the rights of the agriculturist-of the laborer who fed and clothed these same noblemen. We find Arthur Young in England, Lavoisier in France, Von Thaer and Von Fellenberg on the Continent, earnestly engaged between the years 1790 and 1806, discussing and directing public attention to the condition of agriculture. Up to the year 1800 agriculture had been pursued as the mechanical arts were pursued; that is, men were taught how to plow, when and how to sow the seed, according to the notions prevalent at that time; for beyond plowing and seeding, they knew either very little or absolutely nothing of the conditions necessary for the development of the plant other than rain, dew, and sunshine. The farmers had no idea of the true cause of the fertility of the soil, nor that cultivation caused infertility. Agriculture was pursued precisely as the art of photography is pursued to-day. Photography is the crowning gem in the diadem of chemical discovery, and yet not one in a thousand who practices the art of photography has ever read a treatise on the science of chemistry, or understands the entire properties or philosophy of the chemicals or apparatus which he employs day after day and year after year. He is as ignorant of the scientific principles which he puts into requisition, as one who had never beheld a camera. How then is it expected that they can make any improvement in the art? Almost all the improvements made in photography were made by persons who did not practice the art, but were made by those who had studied and were familiar with the laws of light; who were well versed in optics, and who. understood chemistry. So in agriculture, the improvements in agriculture were not made by those who followed the plow, but rather by ingenious mechanics, chemists, and physiologists. It may be argued that so long as the State of Ohio can maintain two and a half millions of people, and export ten million bushels of wheat, fifty million bushels of corn, in the form of three hundred thousand head of cattle and three million head of swine, and fifteen to twenty million pounds of wool, that there is no great necessity for agricultural improvement. But this argument is no better than that of the red man of the forest, who argues that when his squaw has secured an ample store of wild rice and Indian corn, and he has. secured a good store of game, that any further exertion on his part is. uncalled for and unnecessary. There is a higher moral and political obli- |