6 



nomically than by connecting with the gardens at 

 this place (Tokyo) and also with the farm at Sap- 

 poro, institutions at which shall be taught all the 

 different branches of agricultural science. These 

 institutions should have well appointed laboratories, 

 and should be supplied with professors of acknowl- 

 edged ability in their several specialities." 



This recommendation so exactly coinciding with 

 his own educational plan, strengthened the General 

 in his determination to make his idea a reality at 

 an early date. The Japanese Minister in Wash- 

 ington was asked to secure the service of a man 

 thoroughly competent to equip and manage an ag- 

 ricultural institution of high grade. Hereupon the 

 State Agricultural College at Amherst, Mass., being 

 considered the best conducted of its kind, its Pres- 

 ident, William Smith Clark, was nominated for the 

 work of organizing a sister institution in Sapporo. 

 The trustees of the College in Massachusetts kindly 

 consented to loan their President for a year. Presi- 

 dent-Clark and his two assistants arrived in Sapporo 

 in the summer of 1376. He went immediately into 

 his work with his wonted energy, revising the curri- 

 culum of the school and raising it to the level of 

 what would correspond to an average American col- 

 lege. The institution was, as it were, reborn and 

 christened " The Sapporo Agricultural College." 



It was auspiciously opened on the fourteenth day 

 of August, 1876, with twenty-four students, repre- 

 senting all the main islands of the Empire. The 

 faculty consisted of the Hon. Hirotake Dsusho as 

 Director, of Wm. S. Clark, Ph. D., LL. D., as Pres- 

 ident of the College and Director of the College 



