MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 305 



bring out what they really knew ; and it is gratifying to 

 report that the answers showed marked proficiency in these 

 departments of study. They were such as »to increase our 

 confidence in the usefulness of the College in its direct bear- 

 ings upon the agriculture of our state and country. 



The gentlemen of the State Board associated with me in 

 the examination — Messrs. Brown, Moore, Slade, and Bow- 

 ditch — fully coincide in the views here presented. 



James R. Nichols, 



Haverhill, Mass. Cliairman. 



The Report was accepted. 



Mr. Ware offered the following preamble and resolutions 

 as embodying the sense of the Board in regard to the proposi- 

 tion made by Gov. Talbot and his Council to unite the 

 Massachusetts Agricultural College with Amherst College : — 



Whereas the National Government gave to the several 

 States in the Union public lands for the purpose of endow- 

 ing agricultural colleges ; and 



Whereas the gift of three hundred and sixty thousand acres 

 of land was accepted by the State of Massachusetts from the 

 government, and the sum of seventy-five thousand dollars 

 was raised by the town of Amherst to increase the endow- 

 ment, and large sums of money were given by private indi- 

 viduals solely for the purpose of an agricultural college, 

 independent of any other institution of learning ; and 



Whereas it was expressly understood and settled that the 

 Agricultural College must be an institution solely for the 

 purpose of instruction in such branches as would secure a 

 scientific agricultural education, and a knowledge of military 

 science and tactics ; and 



Whereas the Governor and Council were requested by the 

 Legislature of last year " to report some plan for the perma- 

 nent continuance of said College, with its relations to the 

 State definitely fixed, or some plan for its discontinuance, 

 but with the provision, in any event, that its finances shall 

 from this time be finally separated from the treasury of the 

 Commonwealth," and have reported the expediency of unit- 

 ing the Agricultural College with its endowments and prop- 

 erty to Amherst College : therefore 



