540 Dedication of Polytechnic Hall — Address. [Novemberj 



all, faclities for tlie fullest mental development of wliicli mind is 

 capable. 



By appointment, we have come here to day to dedicate this Hall 

 of Science to the great objects for which it has been constructed, 

 which in a single sentence, is : for the promotion of agricultural 

 science, and the elevation and enlightenment of that most numerous 

 and important class, who, either from necessity or choice, make this 

 their pursuit. That we have long needed an institution — or class of 

 institutions — adapted to the wants of the farmer, no reflecting mind 

 will deny. This has been the felt sentiment, as well as expressed, 

 of all our leading statesmen. At the head of the list, Washington's 

 name stands pre-eminent; and this want will not be met by institu- 

 tions teaching mere abstract science ; these, we have, at the present ; 

 but they must be so organized as to apply the jirinciples and doc- 

 trines taught under the direction of skillful scientific operators and 

 observers. Theory, in other words, must be united to, and illustrat- 

 ed hj^ practice ; as now the theorist is no operator, and the operator 

 is entirely incapable of applying the principles taught to practice. 

 The common farmer has neither time, inclination, means, or capacity 

 for such a work; and if he had all these, he ought not to be subject- 

 ed to the expense incident to faithful and successful experiment, for 

 the development and elucidation of principles which belong to the 

 common weal. 



We have erected here a building, and propose to open here a 

 school of science — thus far, purely through private munificence 

 and liberality — which shall hold the same relation to the farmer, that 

 West Point does to the soldier ; to qualify him by regular scientific 

 drill — not for the blood-stained battle-field — but for the successful 

 culture of a far broader, more useful, and, what should be regarded 

 as more honorable, field of labor and conquest — a field where the 

 science of feeding men, not of destroying them, is to be the prize 

 of the victors. Government takes under her peculiar guardianship 

 the former, and lavishes upon it money, and confers upon it dignity 

 and position, and instructs her young and promising sons how to 

 draw with fatal skill, the glittering blade, and to aim, with precision 

 and efi!"cct, the deadly death shot, vrhile it has entirely neglected to 

 provide the means — or even given encouragement to others to pro- 

 vide them — to impart such knowledge as will teach man better to 

 feed, clothe and shelter earth's teeming millions, and to do it with- 

 out impoverishment, or improvident waste of the elements of our 



