INTRODUCTION. 9 



"We are all familiar with the immense results accomplished 

 by combinations of capital in commercial enterprise, in bank 

 ing, in railroad projects, in manufacturing. The combination 

 which is practicable in agriculture is of another kind the 

 association of intelligence and knowledge in the work of in 

 struction, for the indirect attainment of great results in this 

 most important of all fields of human labor. 



" To realize such association of knowledge we would, then, 

 assemble from the farm, the garden, the nursery, the vineyard, 

 and from the ranks of science, gentlemen distinguished for 

 their skill in the various specialties of agriculture practical 

 and theoretic, and call on them to make each his contribution 

 to the work, of instruction. And then we would summon the 

 intelligent and enterprising farmers of the country, young and 

 old, to gather and learn from the most highly qualified among 

 their own number, the secrets of their success. We would 

 propose that such aggregations of knowledge, as have been 

 suggested, should be made at as many different points in the 

 country as the available material would warrant, and that the 

 instruction they would furnish should be adapted as exactly as 

 possible, in time and extent, to the circumstances of our agri 

 cultural population. 



" Such gatherings would partake of the character of the 

 agricultural convention, on the one hand, in which experienced 

 cultivators meet for their mutual enlightenment ; and on the 

 other hand, of the agricultural college, within whose walls the 

 less experienced assemble to take advantage of the deliberations 

 of the former, and to listen also to their formal instruction." 



The experiment proposed as above, in November last, has 

 since been made under the auspices of the Yale Scientific 

 School. Before proceeding with our sketch of it, a few words 

 may be appropriate with regard to the Institution which has 

 undertaken to carry out this scheme of Agricultural Educa 

 tion. 



