STATE GRANGE OF ILLINOIS. 88 



educatioD in the sciences relating to agriculture and in the application of 

 these sciences, as they may be taught in a college, is of any value in in- 

 suring success in the farmer's calling? In at least seventy-five cases out of 

 the hundred, if not in ninety-nine, we shall meet, I fear, a prompt negatire, 

 or at least only a ver}' faint and (lualified approval. 



In some cases, their unbelief comes from want of faith in any education 

 whatever. Too man}' farmers regard learning as lending to make men 

 indolent, crafty and dishonest. Others, from the common trust in the old 

 education, and distrust in ever\'thing new, will not send their sons to an 

 agricultural college. Others still, have given no consideration to the 

 really broad character and rich utilities of those sciences which have so 

 transformed and enriched the other industries and which may equally en- 

 rich agriculture. Some may have been influenced by the carping criti. 

 cisms which have been pronounced upon our agricultural colleges, and 

 others, doubtless, are determined by their general distrust of the educa- 

 tional classes, including teachers. 



This lack of faith among our agriculturists operates to the detriment of 

 agricultural education in two wa^^s. 



1st. It prevents farmers from sending their sons to the agricultural col- 

 leges, and thus robs these colleges of their natural source of supply. Some 

 agricultural students they will obtain from other classes, but the most 

 hopeful are those who come from the farms, and who expect to inherit 

 farms, where their agricultural knowledge might at once be put to service. 



2nd. It leads farmers to discredit and to discourage young men who 

 have been induced to take a course of agricultural education. Not a few 

 of our own students, who have pursued with enthusiasm and success a 

 thorough course of study in agricultural sciences, have been subjected, 

 when visiting their homes or their farmer neighbors, to slights and even 

 ridicule, for having pursued such studies. 



It is certainly a strange fact, that the most serious opposition to the 

 agricultural colleges comes from the farmers themselves. A beueficen 

 government has provided rich endowments; State legislatures have created 

 noble buildings and provided br-oad domains. Public and private liber- 

 ality has given laboratories, libraries, collections and apparatus, which in 

 many cases surpass those of any other institution in our country. Com- 

 petent and earnest teachers wait in spacious class-rooms, ready and eager 

 to greet and instruct agricultural classes. Both trustees and teachers have 

 exerted to the utmost their influence to fill up their agricultural depart- 

 ments, but still the attendance, in some of these institutions at least, has 

 been meagre, and the usefulness correspondingly small. 



I siiall be told that it is not surprising that people give their adhesion 

 but slowly and cautiously to a new scheme of education,especially while the 

 old and popular plan still commands their confidence; and I freely con- 

 fess that our impatience to see greater results, perhaps k'ads us to under- 

 estimate the value of the progress already made. I know full well that 

 no institutions in this country have grown more rapidly, in power and 



