104 Mississippi Valley Horticultural Society. 



Mr. Davies, of Ohio, moved that some more substantial mark of 

 esteem from the Society should be conferred upon Prof. Tracy. 



The motion was unanimously carried, and a committee appointed 

 to decide upon a proper testimonial. 



The Committee on Experimental Stations reported the following : 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON EXPERIMENTAL STATIONS. 



Whereas, The agricultural colleges established under the congressional land 

 grants, for the encouragement of industrial education in the several States of this 

 Union, are, with some honorable exceptions, managed in such away as to seriously 

 pervert the original purpose for which they have been so liberally endowed ; and. 



Whereas, The friends of horticulture, who were first to urge upon the general 

 government the importance of the said appropriations for the establishment of 

 practical schools of agriculture, and kindred sciences in the several States, are se- 

 riously disappointed in the management of many of said institutions, especially in 

 the fact that there is so little of the strictly practical and useful taught, and so 

 much that differs so slightly from the curriculum of ordinary literary institutions; 

 and, 



Whereas, It has at all times been the earnest hope of the true friends of prac- 

 tical industrial education that these institutions were to devote a larger share of 

 their energies to practical experiments in agriculture, horticulture, etc. ; therefore 

 be it 



Resolved, That it is the sense of this convention that the management of the sev- 

 eral state industrial institutions, above referred to, should divert from the ordinary 

 literary work, in which they are now so largely engaged, a sufficient amount o' 

 the liberal endowment fund as may be necessary to fully establish and endow, in 

 each of the States, Experimental Stations, to be placed under the immediate con- 

 trol — not of politicians, or simply scholars, but of thoroughly practical agricultur- 

 ists and horticulturists, for the specitic purpose of testing and disseminating new 

 and untried varieties ; of testing the practical value of fertilizers ; of making ex- 

 periments in entomology and ornithology, so nearly related to our every-day ope- 

 rations upon the farm and in the garden, etc., and that such results as may thus be 

 reached should be freely disseminated amongst the class directly interested. 



Resolved, That until the management of these several State industrial institutions 

 shall be made to conform more fully to the above ideas, it is the judgment of the 

 Mississippi Valley Horticultural Society, embracing in its extensive area a large 

 proportion of the strictly agricultural portion of this country, that the original 

 purpose of the liberal bequests for the encouragement of industrial education is 

 being diverted from its original purpose, greatly to the detriment of agriculture 

 and its kindred branches. W. H. Ragan. 



F. P. Baker. 

 J. C. Evans. 



After a spirited discussion, participated in by several gentlemen, 

 the report was recommitted to the committee, to which four addi- 



