j)44 Dedication of Poli/techiic Rail— Address. [November, 



How long it may continue fashionable to use the ordinary educa- 

 tional cant, and adhere to old systems belonging to a dead and buried 

 age, and that almost exclusively, or how long the ghosts of those old 

 systems may still stalk abroad in this country, to inspire the credu- 

 lous and alarm the timid, we can not say; but we are fast receding 

 from all but their names and forms, and shadows, and aproximating, 

 as we humbly hope and trust, a brighter and more glorious era, for 

 men and angels to look upon. We have marked out for us in our 

 catalogue a course of study as extensive for the scientific agricultur- 

 ist as for the man of letters. And on the completion of the course, 

 we have appended equal honors; and when young men reach a point 

 in their literary course, that they can investigate science with profit, 

 they are transferred at their option to such department of science, 

 as will especially fit them for their chosen pursuit, and not to stop 

 with a mere smattering. And this is the principle adhered to, in 

 every department, even to the accomplishment of a highly classical 



and literary course. 



But some are ready to ask, what can you employ profitably so 

 much of the precious time of those who are to become scientific 

 Farmers, for whose benefit all this outlay in buildings, grounds, etc., 

 is especially made. 



Our chief difficulty is, there are so many branches to be studied, 

 such an extensive round of science peculiar to the pursuit of the 

 Parmer, and so profound are its investigations, we can not determine 

 with precision the beginning or the terminus of such a course. Then 

 the low estimate in which the pursuit is held by the educated and 

 uneducated alike will, must at first modify and serve to abridge our 

 course. It is a department that must literally be built up from foun- 

 dation to topmost stone ; even the rubish is yet to be cleared away, 

 and the excavation made for the corner-stone of the mighty edifice. 

 First, then, it will be admitted, that those sciences which have an in- 

 timate connection with agriculture should be studied, viz., Geology, 

 Mineralogy, Chemistry, Botany, Vegetable Physiology, Entomology, 



and Zoology. 



And how studied? Assuredly difi'erently from the ordinary way. 

 I will endeavor briefly to tell you ; the young Farmer must study 

 o-eoloo-y to know the structure and composition of the rocks which 

 constitute a large part of the soil which he cultivates. We should 

 know the nature of the rocks in all the region around him ; he should 

 know how to select those soils, whose mineral composition is best 



