318 Transactions op the 



NEW JERSEY 



Has, through the work of her Agricultural College and the indefatigable 

 Professor Cook, added greatly to our practical knowledge, especially in 

 the direction of vegetable and fruit growing. "Four of the agricultural 

 students are from Japan. 



CONNECTICUT 



Made over her share of the grant to the Scientific Department of Tale 

 College, adding the funds to those of the Sheffield Scientific School. This 

 school substantially covers the ground of the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology; they are the Mechanic Arts Colleges of their respective 

 States. The Sheffield School has graduated twenty-seven; has at present 

 twenty-five seniors, thirty-seven juniors, thirty-nine freshmen, twelve 

 special students — one hundred and forty. 



Without specifying further, it is enough to say that in almost every 

 institution founded upon or receiving the benefits of the Congressional 

 grant, the labor of the students is being used to develop the industrial 

 departments. Michigan early adopted this system, and no student is 

 excused from his daily three hours labor except for physical disability. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



Briefly then, 'the Agricultural Colleges, without a notable exception, 

 are meeting the reasonable expectations of the public. They flourish 

 just in proportion to the prominence given them as integral parts of the 

 system of public education. Where the Agricultural College is made a 

 mere adjunct or appendage to a literary institution, students are few, 

 undecided as to their pursuits, and led by sympathy away from the 

 specific objects of agricultural training. 



The Commissioner of Agriculture in his recent report says: "These 

 institutions are destined to become a vital power in the land, and to 

 wield an influence which colleges freighted with a curriculum of clas- 

 sical studies can never exert. Mistakes and misconceptions of the sphere 

 of their highest utility will occur, but ultimately, when the grand idea of 

 practical education shall be fully crystalized and their faculties be com- 

 posed of young and vigorous men developed within these institutions 

 and under the influence of higher progression in physical and practical 

 science, their utility and beneficent influences will fully appear." 



The admirable report of the Commissioner of Education is not less 

 emphatic upon this subject: "Great and commendable as was this gift 

 of Congress, had a wider knowledge of technical education prevailed, 

 hundreds of thousands of dollars would have been saved to this great 

 trust, and unspeakably greater results secured." 



This resume of agricultural institutions for the year eighteen hundred 

 and seventy-one would be incomplete without a mention of the Horti- 

 cultural School for Women at Newton Center, Massachusetts. The 

 culture of flowers, small fruits, and vegetables is practically taught, the 

 students laboring the entire Summer from three to five hours daily, with 

 a very marked gain both to physical health and intellectual vigor. 

 Boston affords a market for the products of the garden and greenhouse, 

 the receipts from which are already so large that the institution is 

 expected ere long to become entirely self-supporting. 



