472 FARMING IN EHODE ISLAND. 



and supported by almost every other interest : but, un 

 expectedly, at the last moment, when no opposition was 

 anticipated, a leader of the agricultural body, himself a 

 farming lawyer, rose and proposed a hostile motion, 

 which was carried in the Lower House. It is, perhaps, 

 the greatest evil which attends and follows the want of 

 knowledge, that the ignorant not only cannot see its 

 value, but act as if they really believed the possession of 

 it to be pregnant with evil instead of good, 



As to the farming of Rhode Island, I learned First, 

 That it cannot grow wheat profitably for the home- 

 market of the State, because of the competition of the 

 north-western States. Second, Nor early vegetables, as 

 it used to do, for the supply of the large towns, and for 

 which, being sheltered from the north-east winds by 

 Cape Cod, its climate especially adapted it because the 

 southern steamers now bring from Charlestown earlier 

 in spring what their own earliest lands used to supply. 

 And, lastly^ That as the midsummer heats, especially in 

 droughty seasons like the last, injure the potato and tur 

 nip crops, the field of profitable agricultural exertion is 

 rendered comparatively limited. These circumstances 

 show that the farmers of New England have their trials 

 perhaps not less severe than those under which we 

 suffer at home. 



Brown University is the only collegiate institution in 

 the State of Rhode Island. It was founded, endowed, 

 and has hitherto been directed and chiefly supported, by 

 the Baptist denomination. It possesses only a faculty of 

 arts, having no professional school attached to it, either 

 of theology, medicine, or law. It has a president, five 

 professors, two tutors, a well-selected library of 24,000 

 volumes, and about 150 pupils. The salaries of the 

 professors are only 1200 dollars a-year 5 and the expenses 

 of students, a large number of whom live in college- 

 rooms, about 150 dollars a-year. 



