THE 



YALE AGRICULTURAL 



LECTURES. 



FIRST DAY. FEB. 1, 1860. 



WHILE the friends of an improved agriculture have been for 

 many years advocating this or that reform, and to this day 

 are dolefully wailing over the torpid state of farm science, and 

 praying that something might be done to popularize it, Professor 

 Porter of Yale College, with admirable boldness, has conceived 

 and commenced this first course of Agricultural Lectures at 

 Yale College. He very wisely thought that the man of knowl 

 edge should be brought in direct contact with the men who 

 need it, the skilled farmer come face to face with the unskilled, 

 and that, by choosing a number of men, eminent in the several 

 branches of agriculture, to succeed each other in a course of 

 lectures, our farmers' sons, by sparing a fortnight or month in 

 winter, and coming to one central point, would get more in 

 formation of value to themselves than if they pored over books 

 for a whole year. He plainly saw that if we were to wait for 

 such Governmental aid and comfort to Agricultural Colleges 

 as is given in Europe, he and we all might grow grey and die be 

 fore our hopes were half realized ; and no more feasible plan 

 suggesting itself, he bethought himself, to use his own language, 

 of " the enlistment of practical men, who are not professional 

 teachers, in the work of instruction, and their combination in 



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