STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 191 



of education in reference to agricultural pursuits, that our national and 

 State Legislatures have fostered it by well intentioned legislation, and 

 b}^ occasional grants and subsidies. The idea is being exploded that the 

 mere rudiments of education are all that are necessary for the boy who 

 intends to be a farmer. There is no pursuit in life where thorough 

 instruction, especiall}^ in the ph3'sical sciences, is more needed; none 

 where scientific and pi-actical knowledge more increases man's power — 

 not for the purpose of compact and elegant farming merely, but to pre- 

 serve our vast agricultural domain from waste, to renew the powers of 

 nature with adequate fertilizers, to bring our domestic animals to higher 

 perfection, and extend the range of useful productions. By thus devel- 

 oping and preserving the wealth of the soil, we promote the prosperity 

 and progress of the country. To do all this efl:ectually, the farmer needs 

 contributions from every branch of science, and aid from every art. 

 Genius, as well as industry, is needed ; intelligent and patient experi- 

 mentalism to discover the abstruse processes of nature, and apply them 

 to everj'day use. And the want is not for a few scientific agriculturists 

 merely, but that the great body of farmers shall have that practical and 

 experimental knowledge that will call to their aid all the resources of 

 nature. Where a pursuit is the basis of all others, no improvement that 

 can be secured for it is to be neglected. For adequate improvement a 

 State University, founded on a proper basis, commensurate in extent 

 with the number of scholars for such an institution the State can furnish, 

 with professors of the highest attainment, and i'urnished with ample 

 means of experiment, should be erected in our midst; an institution 

 that will supply to the future farmers of our State that scientific and 

 practical knowledge of their profession which cannot otherwise be 

 obtained, and make all means of knowledge tributary to the elevation 

 and eflScieney of their pursuit. Our ordinary educational institutions 

 furnish instruction within a certain range, and within their sphere ai-e 

 invaluable. But something beyond that range was in the mind of Con- 

 gress when it made a grant of land to each Stlate for the purpose of a 

 college that should have, " for its leading object, without excluding other 

 scientific and classical studies, and including militai-y tactics, to teach 

 such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic 

 arts, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the indus- 

 trial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life." If less than 

 this is aimed at, the project had better be abandoned ; for all that is less 

 than this is suj^plied by our ordinary schools and colleges, and better 

 supplied, each year. The object in view is to reach the industrial classes 

 with practical knowledge useful in their various pursuits, and chiefly the 

 agriculturist. 



Who are the industrial classes? They are not merely the men who 

 hold the plough or strike the anvil. They are not only the laborers who 

 furnish muscle to mechanical pursuits. The designation includes the 

 men of combining mind and inventive genius, who ])eneti-ate the domain 

 of nature and adapt its great forces and princii^les to human needs. 

 Thus Franklin, investigating and experimenting upon electricitv and 

 lightning, and practically applying his brilliant discoveries by producing 

 the lightning rod, was as clearly identified thereby with the industrial 

 classes as when he set type or worked the rude old printing press. When 

 Morse demonstrated the practicability and utilit^^ of eleetro-magnetic 

 telegraphs, he vindicated his right to be ranked among the most eminent 

 of the industrial benefactors of mankind. The elder Brunei, the son of 

 a farmer, whether inventing machinery to cut blocks for the rigging of 



