168 Soientific Agnculfu7'e — lis Difficulties. [April, 



and value shall be exhibited, we may expect the State will come to our 

 aid. 



The only practicable plan then of attaining the desired end, in our 

 judgment, is by opening a department, embracing a course of instruction 

 adapted to this great industrial pursuit, on the university plan, liberal, 

 and extensive, with honors appended to its completion, inferior in no 

 respect to those usually conferred upon those who pass through what is 

 called the regular classical course. This course should embrace so much 

 of the practical as to test by a series of experiments, the theories and 

 doctrines taught. Through the instrumentality of the frequent and 

 rigid analysis made, and the various experimental tests applied, on the 

 farm, and in the garden, the mind would be inured to close investigation, 

 patient thought, and constant resonings ; and they would induce a habit 

 of scanning profoundly every subject entered upon, so that, instead of 

 sciolists, the tendency would be to make sound thinkers, and active and 

 efficient men in every department of life. It would greatly tend to correct 

 the now too prevalent opinion that the ne plus ultra to be gained is not 

 sound scholarship, but the ability to declaim fluently and with effect. 



That the establishment of one such institution is a desideratum, can 

 not be questioned; and one such, permavcniJy estahlished, must prove a 

 triumph that would redound to the highest interest of Agriculture, and 

 Horticulture, and tend to give to that department that honor and dignity 

 of position, which its importance justly and imperiously chiims for it. 

 And we are gratified in being able to state to the patrons and friends of 

 " Farmers' College," that one hundred thousand dollars have been raised 

 to accomplish this object in connection with this Institution. 



One hundred acres of good land have been purchased for a model and 

 experimental farm ; a separate Laboratory is now in progress of erection, 

 that will contain rooms for recitation, cabinets, workshop, and a large 

 lecture room, etc. A Botanic Garden of twelve acres is being laid out 

 upon a portion of it, which will contain an arboretum, embracing every 

 variety of forest growth, shrubs, etc. ; also, conservatory, greenhouses, 

 vinery, apiary, etc. The farm will be partitioned into small lots to show 

 the most approved rotations, to test the various grains, grasses, veget- 

 ables, etc. Also, fruitages, to experiment in various fruits, test their 

 qualities, fix their names. In short, the whole arrangement will 

 constitute a grand laboratory, by which the science of Agriculture and 

 Horticulture will be permanently advanced, and their great interests 

 promoted. Already there have been set upon the farm, over two hundred 

 varieties of the pear, sixty varieties of the cherry, besides numerous 

 varieties of the peach, plum, etc. Thus it will be perceived, that the 



