ANNUAL MEETING. 197 



Dr. Lynde and Mr. Moore submitted reports on behalf of 

 the Examining Committee of the Agricultural College ; Dr. 

 Lynde reporting upon the examination of the graduating 

 class, and Mr. Moore upon the condition of the farm. 



REPORT OF THE BOARD OF OVERSEERS. 



The Committee appointed by the State Board of Agricul- 

 ture to examine tlie Agricultural College ask leave to submit 

 the following report : — 



We assume that the Board desires something more than a 

 mere report of the graduating exercises of the students, and 

 with that view we have carefully examined other depart- 

 ments and the working: of the college. 



The members of this Committee have visited the institution 

 at various times the last year ; and some of us have watched 

 its progress, from the time it was founded to the present 

 time, with a great deal of interest. 



The Act of Congress passed in the year 1862, donating 

 public lands for the purpose of founding colleges to benefit 

 agriculture and the mechanic arts, was a noble act; and it 

 will live in history as a monument of the wisdom of our 

 government, which, in the dark days of the war, had the fore- 

 sight to encourage that great interest lying at the founda- 

 tion of all national prosperity, and in comparison to which 

 any other interest sinks into insignificance, and the product 

 of which is to-day paying the national debt. 



In 1863 the State of Massachusetts accepted the offer of 

 the United States, and incorporated the Massachusetts Agri- 

 cultural College, and with its proverbial liberality has given 

 it, at different times, between two hundred and three hundred 

 thousand dollars. 



All new enterprises cost more than well-settled projects. 

 The Hoosac Tunnel cost the State some twenty millions of 

 dollars, and, as an engineer has said, fifteen millions to find 

 out how, and five millions to make it. Like all new enter- 

 prises, it costs more to find out how than it does to do it : 

 our college is not an exception to this rule. 



The establishment of an institution for the purpose of teach- 

 ing practical, and we may also say theoretical, agriculture, was 

 an experiment in this country. There were no trained in- 

 structors who could teach the art of producing crops in the 



