10 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 



cause of Agricultural Education in New York. In an 

 address prepared for delivery before the Agricultural and 

 Horticultural society of New Haven, Connecticut, (a short 

 time before his death) September 25, 1839, after dwelling 

 upon the fact, that we have schools for the study of the 

 sciences of medicine, law, engineering and. war, and de- 

 claring that for agriculture, by which, under the blessing of 

 Providence, we virtually live and move and have our being, 

 and which truly embraces a wider range of useful science 

 than either law, medicine, or navigation, we have no means 

 of professional education at all, he proceeds to point out 

 the evil consequences of this absence of agricultural schools, 

 in which to teach the principles and practice of agriculture, 

 and urges upon farmers the necessity of having them estab- 

 lished, and closes his appeal with the prophetic declara- 

 tion, that " many who now hear me will live to see pro- 

 fessional schools established in our land; to see their utility 

 extolled, and to be induced to consider them the best nurse- 

 ries of republican virtues, and the surest guarantee for the 

 perpetuation of our liberties. They should be established, 

 they will be established, and the sooner they are established 

 the better for our country." (See page 280, The Farmer's 

 Companion of 1840.) From 1842 till 1846, the subject of 

 agricultural education was discussed by prominent citizens 

 of the New York Agricultural Society, and in the latter 

 year an effort was made to induce the Legislature to take 

 some action upon the subject. 



The question was repeatedly brought before the Legisla- 

 ture in subsequent years, but elicited no action till 1853, 

 when a bill was passed incorporating the " New York Agri- 

 cultural College," but providing no means for founding it. 

 In ]855 a subscription was opened, and soon after an act 

 of Legislature passed, loaning the college $40,000 for twenty 

 years without interest, provided a like sum be raised by 

 private subscriptions for the purchasing of a farm, erecting 

 of College buildings, &c., &c.. Soon afterwards a farm was 

 secured of 700 acres, between the village of Ovid and the 

 eastern shore of Seneca Lake. A large college building 

 was laid out and a part of it finished so as to admit 150 

 students. The college was open for students on the first 



