50 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



professors and new buildings and start the whole thing anew 

 there ? When we have got the whole thing in progress — when 

 we have got laboratories, and a geological cabinet, and lecture- 

 rooms, and a library, and all these things are in successful run- 

 ning order — I should say by all means send these young men 

 down to that institution to have them schooled in all that is 

 necessary to make them educated men ; and then have that farm 

 as an agricultural department, and let it be carried on with all 

 the nicety and taste that can possibly be brought to bear, and 

 with all the enthusiasm, too, and let the boys there see how 

 these things are done. 



But then, some one says, the legislature have provided that 

 the boys shall dig with their own hands. The legislature, when 

 they said that, made as much of a blunder as they did when 

 they said that the commissioner should go and locate those 

 lands. No Agricultural College in the world has been success- 

 ful where manual labor on the part of the students was compul- 

 sory. I would have the most skilled hired laborers, and let 

 them carry on all the manipulations of the farm, and let the 

 boys look on and become interested, and, if they choose to take 

 hold, let them do so. 



Mr. Stedman. I think the gentleman is mistaken if he 

 supposes manual labor is to be compulsory. 



Mr. Perkins. It reads as though it was expected. This is 

 the language of the Act : " They shall make such provisions for 

 the manual labor of the students as they may deem just and 

 reasonable." My preference in regard to that institution would 

 have been to have connected it with Harvard University, and 

 built up the greatest institution in the world, so that our people 

 need not go to France or Germany or anywhere else to finish 

 their education ; and let there be a department of agriculture 

 connected with it. Harvard College has been in existence two 

 hundred and thirty years, and spends $160,000 annually for its 

 running expenses. How can we build up an institution that 

 will be an improvement on that, further than by attaching an 

 agricultural department to it ? There would have been some 

 propriety in establishing an Agricultural College where there 

 was no other college. There the local community would have 

 helped sustain the college. But the local community of Amherst 

 does not require two colleges there. 



