14 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 



science and its important bearings upon the practical 

 operations of life, together with the general diffusion of 

 knowledge among all classes, by which the- purely sci- 

 entific and purely practical man were brought into con- 

 tact with each other. 



The necessity for Agricultural Schools was apparent to 

 any one at all acquainted with the resources of science, 

 or the demands of Agricultural practice. 



The importance of Agricultural Education being recog- 

 nised, the only question at issue, related to the manner in 

 which a system of Agricultural Education should be in- 

 augurated. 



KIND OF AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS WANTED. 



Did the Agricultural interest demand a course of in- 

 struction as extensive as that of our ordinary Colleges, 

 obliging the student to devote three to five years to the study 

 of those sciences which relate to agricultural and the in- 

 dustrial arts, as in the highest Agricultural Institutions in 

 Europe, or did it demand only an elementary course, such 

 as is there given in their schools for Farm Bailiffs, who 

 are not supposed to have the tastes and aspirations of 

 those whom they technically term gentlemen? 



Was it desirable that the farmer should have such a 

 knowledge of agricultural science, as would enable him to 

 investigate and develop agricultural principles, or was it 

 simply desirable to teach him to practise those rules, 

 which others deduced for him from principles he could 

 'not understand? Was it desirable that one large Agri- 

 cultural Institution be founded in a State, capable of em- 

 ploying a sufficient number of professors to admit of a 

 proper division of labor amongst them, and consequently 

 enable them to afford a thorough and efficient course of 

 instruction, in order to educate a few students to a high 

 standard? or was it better to have several smaller local 

 Institutions capable of giving only a popular smattering to 

 a larger number of students? These questions were can- 

 vassed by various parties, and the several different plans 

 they refer to, proposed by different individuals, but with- 

 out any one being accompanied with sufficient evidence in 



