INDIANA HOBTICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 361 



important fields of scientific effort often bear tribute to horticulture. While 

 such a theme could not fail to interest a society of horticulturists such as 

 I now have the honor of addressing, an adequate consideration of it would 

 require more than the allotted time. We therefore propose to confine 

 the discussion chiefly to that phase of the relation of experiment stations 

 to horticulture which pertains to the province of the horticultural depart- . 

 ment or the function of the station horticulturist. In their origin and de- 

 velopment in the United States the Agricultural Experiment Stations have 

 been intimately associated with the land gi-ant colleges, often known as 

 "agi'icultural colleges" but more properly as "colleges of agi-iculture and 

 mechanic arts." They are in fact a natural and logical outgrowth from 

 this class of colleges. A brief review of their rise may lead to a better 

 appreciation of their present status. 



Fifty years ago the young man who went to college for the purpose 

 of training himself for a professional career had the choice of three pro- 

 fessions—medicine, law and theology. Those sciences which are most 

 intimately related either to the productive or to the manufacturing indus- 

 tries received comparatively little attention even in the most progres- 

 sive and best equipped institutions of learning of that day. The remark- 

 able development of the industrial arts in America, the rapid extension 

 and improvement of transportation facilities, the growth of the produc- 

 tive industries attracted in constantly increasing numbers men of intel- 

 lectual ability. Such men felt the gi*eat necessity for some training to fit 

 them for their calling in life other than the classical or so-called liberal 

 education which was all that the existing schools offered. They became 

 impressed with the idea that a knowledge of those sciences which are most 

 closely related to the arts and industries of life would be of immense 

 practical benefit and that in some way young men should be given the 

 opportunity to secure a good training in such kinds of knowledge. So, 

 from various sources, from shops, and factories, and mines, as well as 

 from the farms, there arose a demand for better opportunities for scien- 

 tific education. 



Eventually a few agricultural schools of lower grade than the colleges 

 were started in some of the older States. The first permanent agricultural 

 college was that of Michigan, wliich opened its doors in 1857. In 1859 

 both Pennsylvania and Maryland opened schools of agriculture. At this 

 time Senator Morrill was working in Congress to establish by government 

 aid that great system of State agricultural colleges which was to give to 

 the children of American farmers and mechanics in every State and ter- 

 ritory of the Union an opportunity to secure a college education and par- 

 ticularly instruction in the sciences underlying agriculture and mechanic 

 arts. The Morrill act providing for the ••inblishment of an agricultural 

 college by Government aid in each Stat* «nd territory was passed by 

 Congi-ess in 1862, thirty-nine years ago. It appears, therefore, that these 

 colleges form a decidedly modern class of educational institutions. 



