APPENDIX. 139 



would provide itself with specimens needful for class instruction, and 

 then complete its collection in some department not well represented in 

 other cabinets, we should have far better results for science than we do 

 when each institution strives to build up its cabinets in all directions 

 without any reference to what can be found in a neighboring institution ; 

 or, if it has any reference, it is simply to duplicate the specimen instead 

 of supplementing it. It is not too much to hope that the day will come, 

 when for certain purposes, all the institutions of the State will be bound 

 together in a university system, so that each may do its appropriate 

 work and avail itself of the work done by other institutions, whether 

 near or far from it. We have no doubt there will yet be much greater 

 concert of action among our institution*, even without change of location. 

 Whatever disadvantages may be alleged from the location of the Agri- 

 cultural College, it certainly has great advantages from its nearness to 

 another institution which has around it expensive libraries and cabinets 

 which need not be duplicated. In time a full return will be made to 

 Amherst College in the Botanic Garden and other facilities for certain 

 scientific studies which it is now in no position to command for itself. 



While it is highly desirable and expected that the Agricultural 

 College shall have its own corps of professors devoted to its work, it is 

 not easy to select at any time a body of men fitted at once for the 

 several departments. And, especially in the beginning, the full amount 

 of labor in some professorships will not be required. In some depart- 

 ments only a small amount of time is ever required in a single year. It 

 will not be merely a matter of economy, but an advantage to the institu- 

 tion in other respects, for us to be able to avail ourselves to some extent 

 of the services of gentlemen connected with the other college. It is easy 

 to see that the two institutions may be of mutual benefit to each other, 

 while each goes on performing its distinct work. 



Cost of Education. 



It is the policy of Massachusetts to bring education within the reach 

 of all. This may be said to be the aim of our American college system. 

 The best colleges receive from their students only a small part of the 

 money which is annually expended for their benefit. Grants from the 

 State and donations from liberal benefactors have put our colleges into 

 such a position that they can offer to the poorest, for a mere nominal 

 sum, such advantages that no favored class in the land can secure 

 better. 



Every year are found in them, struggling side by side, the sons of 

 the rich and the poor. This is as it should be, and shows our colleges 

 to be truly democratic institutions. But the support of the student 

 while obtaining his education has become so expensive within the last 



