AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 7 



are not taught at the college. The common schools of the State can carry forward the 

 education of young men so far. To pat the standard for admission higher would be to ex* 

 elude many from the balls of the college who have no means of carrying their preparatory 

 education any higher. As a matter of fact, the average age at admission was (174) 18J 

 years, and the larger part of the freshmen bad some knowledge of algebra and other 

 branches. The requirements For admission might be increased with the increased efficiency 

 of our common schools. 



PURELY PROFESSIONAL 



Shall the course of study be purely professional? Such courses seldom exist in any school. 

 Take a medical course of stud}', and its chemistry belongs to manufactures as well as medi- 

 cine ; its anatomy and physiology are no part of medicine. Huxley studies them not to 

 practice, but to classify the animal kingdom, and Spencer and Bain make physiology the 

 introduction to mental science. Technological schools usually teach sciences as well as 

 their applications, and the modern languages. 



But it may be thought that while chemistry, botany and the like lie closely enough to the 

 proper fields of an agricultural education, literature, political economy and the like are too 

 remote from its objects to have a place in such an institution as ours. Let me quote to you 

 the eloquent words of Mr. Williams, the first president of this institution : " A farmer is a 

 citizen, obliged to bear bis portion of public burdens, amenable to the laws, and in a hum- 

 bler or a wider range, may become an exponent of society. He should be able to execute, 

 therefore, the duties of even highly responsible stations, with self-reliance and intelligence. 

 The constitution of the Union, and of bis State, be should comprehend, and the laws and 

 forms relative to township ana county officers and tbelr duties. He should be qualified to* 

 keep farm accounts, draught ordinary instruments, survey bis farm, and level for drains and 

 highways. His native language should be a flexible instrument at bts command, which he 

 should speak and write with ease and vigor, that he may instruct and impress others, avert 

 mischief, or inculcate truth. A man moved by earnest reflection or deep emotion, should 

 have capacity to give them utterance and force in his mother tongue." 



If these studies then are highly desirable, if the awakening of a taste for history and other 

 reading, the elements of political economy, correctness and facility of speech are requisite 

 to the education, why should they not be taught at the Agricultural College, if they are 

 given their proper place as subordinate to the special studies that are peculiarly appropriate 

 to the course? They cannot be taught much more cheaply anywhere else, for our classes 

 could be joined to no classes in other colleges without an increase of instructors. 



Unless these studies are taught at the college, its students will not have them at all. It 

 is useless to talk of their going to other schools to learn these things. Young men, unwise- 

 ly, as I believe, take the shortest road to entrance on their life-business. You have only to, 

 open catalogues of law and medical schools to see bow few are marked as having com- 

 pleted any course of study preparatory to their professional course. Taken altogether, it is 

 scarcely more than one in ten. If, then, students will not take a preparatory course for a 

 short curriculum into the learned professions, all whose traditions favor erudition, they are 

 hardly likely to do so for our longer course, in order to reach a business where an education, 

 is commonly thought to be thrown away. 



THE LAW. 



This wider range of study is In accordance with general desire and the law. The inau- 

 gural address of President Williams, the law organizing the college, the law of re-organiza- 

 tion, the various addresses and reports of similar institutions in the country, all agree in- 

 recommending this wide range of study. 



LAW OF CONGRESS. 



The law of Congress " donating pnblic lands to the several States and Territories which 

 may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts," provides that 

 the interest of the fund " shall be inviolably appropriated : to the endowment, sup- 



port and maintenance of at least one college, where the leading object shall be without ex- 

 cluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such 

 branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as 

 the legislatures may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical 

 education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life." 



LAW REGARDING STUDIES. 



The law of this State submitted by a farmer to the Senate in 1881 is still more full. Its 

 provisions are as follows : 



"The Slate Agricultural School * * shall be known by the name and style of * The 

 State Agricultural College;' the design of the institution, in fulfilment of the injunction of 



