82 proceedi:n^gs of the 



heartiness and moral competency in the managers and teachers in our 

 agricultural colleges. They have been charged with hankering after "the 

 flesh-pots" of their beloved classics and as having but little faith or in- 

 terest in the branch^ of agricultural learning. 



To this charge I wish to give here and everywhere a fearless and un- 

 hesitating denial. As far as I know them, the men in the agricultural and 

 polytechnical colleges are among the most enthusiastic of American 

 teachers, and the known enthusiasm of the students of these colleges is a 

 suflicient answer to these slanderous reports against their instructors. 



I do not mean to affirm that there are no difficulties nor wrongs inside 

 of these institutions, which may impair in some degree their usefulness 

 and success. No human institution is perfect. Xo men are infallible ; 

 and doubtless, here as elsewhere, errors have been committed ; weaknesses 

 exist, and reforms may be possible. But I wish to affirm my own settled 

 belief, that the most serious difficulties in the way of the large and 

 triumphant progress of agricultural education, which we all desire to see, 

 for the sake of our country, and for the sake of this most numerous 

 part of the people, are to be looked for, not within the colleges but out- 

 side of them. 



THE COIsDITIO^:S OF GRASDEB SUCCESS. 



The successes already achieved in this department of education, 

 scarcely yet ten years old, in our land, have not only proved its feasibility 

 and value, but give assurance of a much grander success in the future; 

 they at least encourage us to new efforts to remove the obstacles which 

 hinder, and to study the conditions which may help us to that grander 

 success for which we strive. 



At the head and front of these real obstacles is the want of practical 

 interest in agricultural education among the farmers themselves. The 

 complaint that has met my ears, from not a few of the agricultural col- 

 leges from the Atlantic to the Pacific is this strange apathy of the farmers 

 themselves. Xot one of these colleges that would not be glad to see its 

 halls crowded with genuine students of agriculture. Larger numbers of 

 students would not only make the course more popular but would put 

 both trustees and instructors on their metal to do their best work in this 

 direction, and to give the fullest efficiency to their instruction. "Why ! 

 let the farmers send a hundred of their sons to any college in the State, 

 asking for them agricultural studies, and trustees and faculty would strain 

 every nerve to give it. Send these sons by hundreds to your colleges 

 already fitted to teach these studies and you will fire them to enthusiasm 

 in their work. If any agricultural college in this country shall ever fail 

 it will be the fault of the farmers themselves. 



The truth must be told. There is still among the majority of farmers a 

 want of faith in the real utility and value of agricultural education. Let 

 us put the question to the first hundred farmers we meet, whether they 

 believe that anything more than a common school education is essential 

 to a good farmer; and especially whether they believe that a thorough 



