96 HENRY HILL GOODELL 



that the College educated men away from the farm and that 

 comparatively few availed themselves of the opportunity 

 it afforded to acquire an education. But he so managed 

 affairs as to have the support and encouragement of an able 

 and wise board of trustees, who had confidence in him and 

 faith in the mission of the College, and he was backed by a 

 corps of teachers after his own heart. But it was not until 

 1896, twelve years after he assumed the presidency that he 

 could report to the Governor and Council that, — 



"Reviewing the past, we cannot but feel that the stage 

 of experiment is over and we enter upon this the first year of 

 its fourth decade with quickened hope that from a broader 

 foundation the College will continue to rise and fulfil its 

 mission of providing that 'liberal and practical education 

 that shall fit the industrial classes for the several pursuits 

 and professions of life.' " 



President Goodell believed with all the energy of his in- 

 tellectual and moral nature that behind the farmer should 

 be the educated man. Hence he was anxious to maintain 

 a high standard of scholarship. But the class from which 

 recruits are drawn for our agricultural colleges, as a general 

 rule, is not the same as that which recruits our classical 

 schools. A season of stringency in the money-market makes 

 no perceptible difference in the number of students at our 

 great academic institutions, but the case is very different 

 with the agricultural colleges. Their ranks are recruited 

 from families which often have little, if any, reserve capi- 

 tal to fall back upon, and in times of stringency are com- 

 pelled to retain their sons at home, or recall them to join 

 the army of bread-winners. This want of reserve capital 

 may account in part for the neglect of early training com- 



