42 Agriculture and Its Needs 



The State has recently built new agricul- 

 tural college buildings, and provided for 

 developing a real agricultural college, at 

 Cornell University. There are those who 

 ask, Why has not Cornell, with New 

 York's share of the land-grant funds, devel- 

 oped a real agricultural college before now ? 

 I am not one of these, because I know some- 

 thing of the difficulties which have been in 

 the way. These difficulties have persisted 

 until now, but happily they are now giving 

 way. They have related to the scarcity of 

 competent teachers with enthusiasm in the 

 subject, to the absence of students who 

 could matriculate in a college, to the ab- 

 sence of any actual and intelligent interest 

 in agriculture on the part of the univer- 

 sities, and to the absence of any rational 

 plan of the agriculturists for agricultural 

 education. The western farmers have had 

 more value at stake in their farms than we 



