EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XVI. April, 1905. No. 8. 



This year may be taken as marking the semicentennial of agricul- 

 tural education in this country. Fifty years ago the State of Michi- 

 gan took steps to establish an agricultural college, which was the first 

 institution of the kind in the United States. Two years from now it 

 is planned to celebrate in a fitting way the anniversary of the opening 

 of the college to students, and the occasion will be one of national 

 interest. 



The beginning of interest in agricultural instruction in this country 

 dates back to the forties. At that time and in the early fifties the 

 establishment of an agricultural college was quite actively canvassed 

 in New York and Massachusetts, and one or two abortive attempts 

 were made to provide such an institution. Professor Brewer tells of 

 the passage of an act in New York in 1853, mainly on the initiative of 

 Mr. John Dalatield, providing for a State agricultural college to be 

 located on his farm near Geneva. No appropriation was made for 

 buildings or maintenance, and as Mr. Dalatield died the following fall 

 nothing further came of the movement. The State agricultural 

 society was also interested in the subject, and expected much from the 

 People's College. 



Agricultural schools were established in various parts of New York 

 by -private enterprise between 1845 and 1850, and an agricultural 

 school in Connecticut was opened in 1815 by Dr. S. W. Gold and his 

 son, T. S. Gold, which continued in successful operation until 1869. 

 In 1815 Oliver Smith, of Massachusetts, died, leaving a fund of $30,000 

 for a farm school and experimental farm, where worthy young men 

 could make a study of agriculture in all its branches. His bequest 

 was to be allowed to accumulate for sixty years, and therefore 

 becomes available the present year. 



The interest in agricultural instruction at that early date is the more 

 remarkable considering the educational conditions of the times. The 

 teaching of natural science in the higher institutions was very 

 restricted, and opposition to its introduction had hardly begun to be 

 overcome. Technical schools for other branches were almost unheard 

 of, and manual training as a branch of the educational system did not 



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