214 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



purchase and stock a farm, become a successful farmer, aud show 

 to the State the value of a course of training at the State College ! 

 These results come slowly. All results of this kind are only 

 reached after the most patient and the most persistent efforts. It 

 is not to be expected of a young man a few years from graduation, 

 that he shall be successfully established in business, unless he 

 have large financial resources. Most of our graduates have to 

 work their way through College, depend upon themselves, and do 

 that first which offers the best immediate returns. Subsequently, 

 they enter upon the business of life, or engage in that profession 

 or occupation towards which they have long been looking. More- 

 over, it is not expected that all who take the course at Orono will 

 become farmers : many will become teachers, some lawyers, some 

 engineers, some manufacturers. But graduation determines noth- 

 ing in regard to the profession a man will follow. Dr. Abbott, 

 President of the Michigan Agricultural College, states on the au- 

 thority of a member of the State Legislature, that out of a class 

 of twenty-four, who graduated with him in law, only four were 

 practicing lawyers. He also says that not over half the graduates 

 of the professional schools practice the professions, although to 

 do so requires no large outlay as a farmer's business does. But 

 it is the aim of our State College to create a bias towards, and not 

 away from the farm, to make the atmosphere of the place one of 

 respect for all kinds of work and of a feeling of fellowship with 

 farmers. In carrying out this iC<iea, the labor system and the in- 

 struction are planned to match each other, to illustrate each other; 

 so that to the labor is given some of the dignity of scientific work, 

 and to the scientific instruction labor serves as a kind of labora- 

 tory practice for instruction. For the purpose of making better 

 known to our people the aims and methods of this Institution, I 

 copy from the last report of the Trustees, theif general statement 

 concerning the same, which, in the form in which it is printed for 

 the College, has but a limited circulation among our young farmers 

 and mechanics, those who are looking towards the College for giv- 

 ing them that scientific and practical training which they need to 

 become better citizens and more skilled and intelligent workmen : 



" Design of the Institution. It is the design of the Maine 

 State Cullege of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, to give the 

 young men of the State who may desire it, at a moderate cost, 

 the advantages of a thorough, liberal and practical education. It 



