442 



ment in the University ; and invite me to occupy a few pages in the 

 second Volume, in the further discussion of the same subject, or of any 

 other pertaining to the interests which your Society proposes to sub- 

 serve. 



Since the natural sciences have been so largely pressed into the service 

 of the farming interests, the importance of professional schools of agri- 

 culture, one, at least, in each State, is fast becoming a conviction of the 

 popular mind. It is conceded that the young farmer, who proposes to 

 make himself eminent in his profession, will best approach the practice 

 of it, through an appropriate course of scientific training. But the pro- 

 per oroanization of such schools, and its position in the educational econ- 

 omy of the State, are still open questions. 



Having stated in the last Volume of the Transactions, the grounds of 

 the opinion, that the object in view would be best attained by bringing 

 the Agricultural school into the University system, and placing it side by 

 side with the schools of Medicine, Law, and Normal Instruction, I have 

 no occasion to extend the argument on that point further. 



But whether the Agricultural College be connected with the University 

 or not, the main object to be accomplished by its organization, is the 

 professional culture of the young men of the State, who are destined to 

 agricultural pursuits, and who resolve to work out their position in the 

 social economy, by making themselves eminent in their chosen art. 



The functions of the agricultural school are, of course, instructional, 

 in the main — the inculcation of science in its various applications to the 

 production of the material of physical wealth. But such school should 

 not only be the repository of science for instructional uses, but should be 

 prepared to do something for the advancement of science itself, by anal- 

 ysis and experiment. Its permanent endowment and continued presence 

 as a public institution, would furnish the means for a survey of the State 

 with more especial reference to its agricultural capabilities. It should be 

 charged with a gratuitous analysis of soils for the benefit of farmers in 

 any section of the State, and the laboratory should be amply supplied 

 with the means of meeting all practical calls of this character. 



The results of such analysis, in order to being of immediate practical 

 utility to the farmer, should be accompanied by suggestion of the crops, 

 to the growing of which the soil, in its natural state, is best adapted ; and 

 also of the specific manures which might be necessary to bring it into 



