280 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



past year, and it was with some misgivings that they undertook 

 the discharge of the duty assigned them by your Board, — a 

 duty which had for its object the careful and close examination 

 and thorough investigation of the management and success of 

 an institution which was nurtured by the State, and which was 

 beginning to be, if it had not already become, second to none in 

 the position it occupied, and in the encouragement and good 

 will which it was receiving from the citizens of this beloved 

 Commonwealth. And more especially was the responsibility 

 which had thus been imposed upon us, the more forcibly im- 

 pressed, when we remembered at the outset, that the year over 

 which our duties extended was to be the most important one, 

 so far as the interests of the College were concerned, that had 

 occurred since its foundation. The term of four years was 

 about to expire. The first graduating class of an institution 

 which by very many had been regarded as a doubtful experi- 

 ment was to be sent forth as an " advertisement," both at home 

 and abroad. What had before been but an experiment, was 

 this year to become a reality — or a failure. The old adage " by 

 their fruits ye shall know them," was this year to be made im- 

 pressively truthful as regards the past success and the future 

 welfare of this institution, through the agency of those young 

 men of the graduating class, who were to go forward into their 

 several fields of labor either richly laden with the results of an 

 agricultural and scientific education, i eceived at an institution 

 supported by the generous benefaction of this Commonwealth, 

 and thus proving the wisdom of its founders, or else found want- 

 ing when " weighed in the balance," and thereby stamping a 

 stigma upon the College, and causing discouragement to its 

 friends, who had hoped so much and labored so well to promote 

 its best interests. With these reflections impressed upon us, our 

 first visit to the Agricultural College (which was at the close of 

 the spring term), was anticipated with no small degree of interest 

 to the Committee, and this interest was not in the least abated 

 at any subsequent visit during the year. 



Your Committee have endeavored to take particular notice of 

 all that in any way helped to make the College what it is or 

 what it should be, that they might be able to present to your 

 Board as intelligent a report as the circumstances of the case 

 would permit, that you might the better judge what compensa- 



