Society. He also carried on an extensive correspondence with societies which were being formed in other States, including New England, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia.

AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES IN CONNECTICUT

The Society for Promoting Agriculture in the State of Connecticut was organized August 12, 1794, at Wallingford by "a number of citizens from different towns in the State" (103). Its constitution stated that "the object of investigations for the society shall be agriculture, with such subjects of inquiry as may tend to explain its principles." Provision was made for reports from members on the state of agriculture in their localities, including experiments and discoveries; and for publications. A considerable list of queries on a variety of agricultural subjects was compiled and disseminated. Brief reports of experiments and observations on a number of these subjects were printed in the transactions. "Many experiments have been made by the members themselves, and their observation has extended to the improvements of their neighbors."

The records of the New Haven County Agricultural Society "show that in 1803, 'A Society for promoting Agriculture' was formed at New Haven, of which Gen. James Wadsworth was president until 1813." Later, President Dwight, of Yale College, David Humphreys, and Eli Whitney held this office.

In 1817 the Hartford County Agricultural Society was formed with Henry L. Ellsworth, afterwards United States Commissioner of Patents, as secretary. Societies in the other counties were organized later and in 1852 the Connecticut State Agricultural Society was formed under an act of the legislature passed that year.

EARLY SOCIETIES IN NEW HAMPSHIRE

The legislature of New Hampshire in 1814 granted a charter to an agricultural society in Rockingham County, with headquarters at Chester or Exeter. In 1817 there were county agricultural societies in Rockingham and Cheshire Counties, each of which received a State appropriation of $100. Similar societies were organized and chartered that year in Hillsborough (221) and Strafford Counties and soon thereafter in Grafton and Coos Counties. In 1819 and 1820 al' the counties had societies which held fairs and received State aid. Up to 1820 the annual appropriation to each society ranged from $100 to $300 and in all $3,000 had been expended by the State.

VIRGINIA'S GREAT AGRICULTURAL LEADERS AND EARLY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES

George Washington (1732-1799) as a farmer was not content to follow the ordinary farm routine which his neighbors practiced (384). He early determined to study and experiment with a view to improving agricultural conditions for himself and farmers generally. While he began with tobacco as his money crop, he changed to wheat and flour with special reference to trade with the West Indies and afterwards became largely engaged in growing forage crops and livestock.

He became a "book farmer," not only reading carefully such agricultural books as he could get, principally from abroad, but making detailed notes of some of them. This was particularly true of Tull's Horse Hoing Husbandry; Duhamel's A Practical Treatise of Husbandry; the Farmer's Compleat Guide; Home's The Gentleman Farmer; and Young's Annals of Agriculture (after 1784).

He carried on an extensive correspondence with men in England acquainted with improved farm practices and particularly with Arthur Young and Sir John Sinclair.

Beginning as early as 1760, he made many experiments on his Mount Vernon estate before and after the Revolutionary War. Among these were experiments in growing alfalfa, wheat, clover, timothy, and various other grasses and vegetables, and in the use of marl, gypsum, and salt as fertilizers. He was much interested in trying improved implements and himself devised a "barrel plough " or drill. He grew many kinds of fruits, trees, and ornamental plants collected from various countries, maintained a conservatory and a small botanic garden, and had many experimental plats on various plantations.

His experience as a farmer and experimenter convinced him that improvement of agriculture was of such fundamental importance to the growth and prosperity of the United States that the public ought to share in the maintenance of agencies for this purpose. He therefore gladly associated with the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture as a beginning of effort in this direction.

The Society of Virginia for Promoting Agriculture.-As early as 1811 an organization called The Society of Virginia for Promoting Agriculture was formed at Richmond and in 1818 published a volume of memoirs (389). Its membership included many of the most eminent men of the State.

Among its presidents were John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and John Taylor, author of the collection of agricultural essays entitled "Arator."

The Albemarle Society.-The Albemarle Agricultural Society was organized May 5, 1817, under the leadership of Thomas Jefferson, by 30 men from five counties (397). Ultimately Fairfax County and the Great Valley were also included in its membership. Its rules and regulations were based on a plan for agricultural societies drafted by Jefferson in 1811 (396). James Madison was its president from

1817 to 1824.

The society prospered, published many papers in the Richmond Enquirer, its official organ, conducted fairs and exhibitions with prizes for agricultural implements, livestock, and domestic manufactures, interested itself in the development of the University of Virginia, and endeavored to obtain funds for a professorship of agriculture in that institution. Its existence covered a period of over 30 years and until its place was taken by other organizations. Virginia State Agricultural Society. In the decade beginning with 1826 a number of agricultural societies were formed in Virginia, and between 1836 and 1850 efforts were made to establish a State agricultural society (400). Though this was authorized by the legislature in 1845, its creation was not effected until 1852, and then only through the strenuous activity of Edmund Ruffin (17941864) (fig. 3), widely known for his Essay on Calcareous Manures

and his editorship of the Farmers' Register (1833-1842) (390). This organization promptly got into active operation and held its first fair in 1853. At that time Ruffin wrote an essay on agricultural education for which the society gave him a prize (388).

EARLY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

The Society for Promoting Public Economy.-A temporary organization known as the Society for Promoting Public Economy was described by Ben: Perley Poore in the Report of the Department of Agriculture for 1866, as follows:

About 1806 an institution had been organized by " Members of Congress, officers of the Federal Government, and others, devoted to objects connected with public economy." Meetings were held at Mr. Harvey's, on Pennsylvania Avenue, every Saturday evening from 5 until 8 o'clock, and among the subjects considered were:

Our mechanical economy, or the means of abridging labor by useful inventions, implements, and apparatus.

Our agricultural economy, or the means of producing the most abundant and most reciprocal crops, under any given circumstances, without doing things by guess.

The economy of our forests, or the best management of our latent resources there (438).

The Columbian Agricultural Society. The Columbian Agricultural Society was organized in 1809 by men interested in agriculture in the District of Columbia and vicinity (107). Its first exhibition was held in Georgetown May 10, 1809, and was attended by President Madison and members of his Cabinet, as well as many members of the society and other people. It consisted of breeds of sheep, horses, and domestic fabrics of cotton and wool.

Five other semiannual exhibitions were held, but when the War of 1812 came on it "overshadowed everything else, and as the time had expired for which the society had been organized it was dissolved."

The Columbian society also undertook the publication of a periodical entitled "The Agricultural Museum" (107), the first number of which was published at Georgetown, July 4, 1810. Among other things this publication contains the constitution and proceedings of the society.

The Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences.On June 15, 1816, an association called the Metropolitan Society was formed by 89 residents of Washington, D. C., under the leadership of Edward Cutbush and John Law. When a constitution for this society was adopted August 8, 1816, its name was changed to Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences. Among its objects was the collection, cultivation, and distribution of plants and the securing of papers on agricultural subjects, including the management of livestock and their diseases. In 1838 distribution of seeds, including wheat and barley, was begun and continued for several years. (See United States National Museum Bulletin 101.)

Congress gave the society a charter April 20, 1818, the use of 5 acres of land for a botanic garden in 1820, and four years later a room in the Capitol for its meetings and collections. Its first president was Doctor Cutbush, and later that office was held by John Quincy Adams and John C. Calhoun. The society was quite active for about 10 years and hoped to secure public or private funds to establish a museum and library, but it did not acquire any substantial means and went out of existence on the expiration of its charter in 1838. A botanic garden was begun on land located at the east end of the Mall near the Capitol and its area was extended in 1824 to include the present site of the United States Botanic Garden.

EARLY AGRICULTURAL FAIRS IN NORTH AMERICA

Fairs for the sale of agricultural products, especially livestock, were early held in the American Colonies, following an English custom. Examples of such fairs were those in New Haven, Conn., in 1644; Burlington, N. J., in 1681; Rye, N. H., about 1726; and Baltimore, Md., in 1747. In South Carolina, at Strawberry in St. Johns Parish, in Berkeley County, a fair was established by an act of 1723, to be held "at least twice in every year for exposing for sale horses, cattle, and merchandise." Semiannual fairs were

authorized by statute at Alexandria, Va., in 1742 and in Georgetown, Md., when that town was laid out in 1751. Horse racing and other competitions and the giving of prizes for superior animals were sometimes features of these fairs.

The first fair at Washington, D. C., was held in 1804 at the suggestion of William Thornton, the first Commissioner of Patents, and was so successful that the city government contributed $50 toward premiums at the fair held the next year (438).

Following the importation of Merino sheep into this country a kind of rural festival called "sheep shearing" was created and became quite popular. These affairs were in imitation of meetings of farmers held in Norfolk, England, beginning in 1778. The interest of George Washington Parke Custis in such festivals is described as follows:

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Prominent among these "sheep shearings" were those established [in 1802], and continued for a dozen years, by George Washington Parke Custis, at "Arlington," his estate opposite Washington, on the Virginia side of the PotoLarge collections of prominent men used to accept his hospitable invitation to be present at these gatherings, where he entertained his guests beneath the marquee used throughout the revolution by his illustrious guardian, George Washington (438).

mac.

GOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS TO EDUCATION IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES AND EARLY STATES

The granting of Federal and State lands and funds for agricultural education was the result of public policies relating to education which passed through a long period of evolution. It has, therefore, seemed desirable to trace this in outline in connection with the discussion of the foundations of our present system of agricultural education.

BEGINNINGS OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC-SCHOOL SYSTEM

The use of public lands and funds for the encouragement and support of educational institutions began early in the American Colonies. At times and in certain places it encountered much opposition. The doctrine that the parent was responsible for the education of the child and therefore should pay for his schooling was long used to hinder the public support of education, especially as applied to primary and secondary schools. For many centuries in the Old World the church, rather than the state, was looked upon as the proper authority under which public education should be conducted as far as this was at all desirable, and the support of education was classed among works of charity. Higher education, in particular, was primarily for the training of ecclesiastical leaders, and hence colleges and universities came naturally under the control of the church. This idea of the union of church and state, so generally prevalent in European countries, was adopted by the American Colonies. As a result, it was comparatively easy at first to use public lands and funds in this country for the support of the higher educational institutions. As the separation of the state from the church developed, and particularly after the revolution when this separation was defined in State and National constitutions, a strong sentiment was created against public control of higher education. On the other hand, it became more difficult to use public funds for the maintenance, even in part,