34 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



tiou the best way they can. I am sure of that. This has been 

 the uniform result — that just as institutions have lowered the 

 standard of education, they have lost prestige and failed of their 

 object. 



As the lecturer said this morning, agricultural education is 

 in its infancy. It is said that there arc not professors enough 

 in the United States to carry on an Agricultural College as it 

 ought to be. I believe] that fully ; but is that any reason why 

 we should not get together all we can, and have young men and 

 old men preparing themselves, and doing all they can to build 

 up men who shall be fit to carry on an Agricultural College ? 

 We must bring the brands together to kindle a fire. If we have 

 not the means to get the best men for a whole year, let them 

 come for a month, a week, or even for a single day. I would 

 give more for a whole man to stand up and lecture to one of my 

 classes for a single hour than for some other teachers for a whole 

 term. He will give the students more power, more insight into 

 the methods of study, and what men can and ought to do, than 

 the man who will plod on the whole year without any life-power, 

 any perception of the human mind, any perception of this world, 

 and any perception of the relation of one to the other. If I am 

 indebted to any man to-day for any mental power, it is to some 

 men who, in a siuglc lecture or in a few minutes' talk, have 

 given me a new insight, and left mo to work my own way out. 

 We need and must have those men ; if not for a year, then for 

 a day or an hour. Let the young men see them and hear them 

 talk ; let them take their measure and have them for a standard. 



There are three things which we propose to have, as I under- 

 stand, at the Agricultural College. The first is an educational 

 course. They have made a four years' course of it. It is nut 

 proposed that young men shall go to another institution for their 

 education, and then come there and spend a few months to get 

 a knowledge of agriculture. A man may do it ; but the idea is 

 to establish an educational system, and one that shall have 

 special reference to agriculture — the Avhole thing. Well, gen- 

 tlemen, what is agriculture ? As I understand agriculture, it is 

 simply the practical application of chemistry and botany and 

 zoology. It is natural history and chemistry applied ; and the 

 deeper you can put a man into these things, and the broader 

 principles you can lay down in reference to them, the better 



