AGRICULTURE, EAST AND WEST. 31 



crop from the land and sending it away ; and every crop they 

 send away takes so much from the richness of the soil. The 

 soil is very rich, and it will take a great many years to exhaust 

 it ; hut the process is going on. All that the people have hitherto 

 been called upon to do has been to invent means to put in the 

 seed and take off the crops. Invent the best means possible for 

 robbing the soil, and you were supposed to have done the best 

 thing you could for America. That is the truth of this matter. 

 I had an offer this fall to take the presidency of a Wisconsin col- 

 lege. It had an agricultural department, and I said, " The 

 most difficult department you have got is the agricultural 

 department." They said, " This is an agricultural community ; 

 it is the great interest of the State." " But," I answered, " you 

 have so much land, and the land is so productive, that you can- 

 not make it worth while for the people to spend their time in 

 studying how they can make it more productive. You cannot 

 bring agricultural education up to the highest point here." 

 When we come to Massachusetts, we find a different state of 

 things. We cannot go on robbing our soil year after year. If 

 we make our draft upon the soil without making any deposits, 

 they will be protested ; and hence we are called upon to keep 

 our bank account all right. Now, if there is any place in Amer- 

 ica where agricultural education can be brought to the highest 

 point, it is in Massachusetts, for three reasons. In the first 

 place, its soil is limited ; in the second place, it is of such a 

 nature that it is impossible to take off crop after crop with- 

 out restoring its fertility ; and, thirdly, the people are generally 

 intelligent. You have here the three elements which in Massa- 

 chusetts will tend to bring agricultural education to a higher 

 point than it would be possible to carry it further west or south, 

 where the land is so unlimited, and where they can take crop 

 after crop from it year after year. This I consider the hopeful 

 feature in regard to agricultural education in Massachusetts ; 

 that we are, from the very nature of the case, compelled to give 

 it that thought and that study and that practical turn which are 

 not called for at the West nor at the South. 



Another thing I want to call your attention to, and that is, a 

 comparison of our agricultural institutions with those of Europe. 

 The two classes that attend those schools in Europe are entirely 

 different from the class that will attend the Agricultural College 



