152 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



4tb. To aflord the means of general education to the farming class. 



The sciences which relate to agriculture and the kindred arts, especially 

 Chemistry, Botany, Zoology, and Animal Physiology, receive a greater share of 

 attention here than is given them in other institutions where the study of their 

 practical applications is not pursued. 



In order to secure the greatest benefit from the course of study, theoretical 

 and practical instruction are combined, so that the student may apply the test 

 of experience to elucidate and fix in his mind the principles taught in the 

 lecture room. Farmers thus having gained both science and practice, will 

 avail themselves moi"e successfully of those operations of nature which conduce 

 to their advantage, and avoid or control those which tend to make labor un- 

 profitable. Through their example the empirical routine too often pursued 

 must give place to a more intelligent and rational practice, founded on the true 

 principles of science. 



The benefits arising from the increase and diffusion of scientific knowledge, 

 and its application to the industrial pursuits, can hardly be estimated ; and it 

 is only by the systematic combination of principles with the details of practice 

 and experiment that the greatest proficiency in the arts can be obtained. 



Agriculture is especially the creature of experiments. But it is well known 

 that experiments generally are too loosely performed to afford very satisfactory 

 results, and that farmei's do not usually possess the facilities for deciding mj^ny 

 questions that arise. It has therefore been determined, by the aid of an ex- 

 tensive laboratory in making analyses and pi'osecuting investigations, and with 

 the other facilities for scientific researches accumulated at such an institution, 

 to enter upon a systematic series of experiments for meeting the wants of the 

 agricultural class. 



Moreover, to accomplish the objects of the institution, it is evident that 

 those Avho receive in it the necessary scientific education, must not lose in 

 acquiring it either the ability or the disposition to labor on the farm. It is 

 well known that students who pursue a college course very seldom thereafter 

 engage in any industrial pursuit. Four or six years of study without labor, 

 and wliolly removed from sympathy with the laboring world, at that period of 

 life when habits and tastes are rapidly formed, will almost inevitably produce 

 a disinclination t) perform the work and duties of the farm. If the farmer 

 then is to be educated, he must be educated on the farm itself; and it is due 

 to this large class of our population that facilities for improvement, second to 

 none other in the state, be afforded them. 



It is believed that the three hours work which every student is required to 

 perform on the f\irm or in the garden, besides serving to render him familiar 

 with the use of implements and the principles of agriculture, are sufficient 

 also to preserve habits of manual labor, and to foster a taste for agricultural 

 pursuits. It has been found in the past sufficient to keep the students inter- 

 ested in every department of farm and horticultural work ; and the daily labor 

 of each one being performed at one time, it does not occupy him longer than 

 18 requisite for preserving health and a robust constitution. 



The history of the college has fully exploded the common fallacy that labor 

 and study are incompatible. The work performed by the student does not 

 diminish his enthusiasm fi>r study. It has been clearly shown that the ad- 

 vancement in the studies of the course is not less rapid wlien a limited portion 

 of the time is devoted to manual labor. And if, aside from its proper office 

 of contributing its share towards the mental culture of the young men of the 

 state, the college succeeds to any extent in l)reaking down the wall that has 

 been reared between the; educated and laboring classes of the community, so that 

 those who labor shall be better educated, and those who are educated shall not 

 despise labor, it will amply repay all the efforts that have been put forth in its 

 behalf." 



It is earnestly hoped that the legislature of Maine will not prove 



