508 TH GROUNDSWELL. 



THE CLASSICS AND AGRICULTURE. 



Unfortunately, many of these colleges have slid into the 

 old-time ruts of classical education, although a few have 

 made progress in the right direction, and public opinion is 

 forcing still others reluctantly toward technical education. 



Those in the West which have made the most uniform 

 progress are those belonging to the States of Michigan 

 and Iowa. In Illinois and Kansas the people are steadily 

 working to infuse a spirit of practical effort into the fossils, 

 or worse, who have mismanaged these institutions. It is 

 one of the legitimate provinces of the Farmers Movement 

 to see that these colleges are made what they were intended 

 to be schools where the application of practical science 

 might aid the student to be a better farmer or artisan than 

 he otherwise would be, and not mere easy-chairs for college 

 dons, retired clergymen, decayed politicians, or theoretical 

 farmers. 



At the East, the agricultural schools that have shown the 

 greatest progress are those of Amherst, Massachusetts, and 

 Cornell University, New York. In the South few of these 

 schools have been established for a sufficient length of time 

 to enable a fair judgment to be made of their usefulness; 

 but, so far, most of them appear to be actuated by an ear 

 nest desire to make their system of training as thoroughly 

 practical in their nature as possible. 



While it was never supposed by practical men that these 

 colleges would be able, all at once, to accomplish the end 

 sought, still less, however, was it expected that Industrial 

 Colleges were to adopt the curriculum, essentially, of the 

 average literary college, with simply enough varnish of ag 

 riculture and mechanics to enable them to annex the endow 

 ment of the nation and of the States where situated. Yet 



