No. 4.] AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 139 



a very large per cent of the graduates entered some one of 

 the so-called learned professions. It is very different now, 

 Ave know. 



In the long race brains, and especially educated brains, 

 will tell, and it has been well said that "the prol)lem for 

 every civilized nation to-day is how the largest amount of 

 intellectual development can be given to its industrial popu- 

 lation." I think we are apt to lose sight of that very im- 

 portant fact, — it is educational development as well as 

 technical skill. It is upon the intelligence and integrity of 

 our industrial classes that the safety and perpetuity of our 

 institutions largely depend. We must have intelligent capi- 

 tal and intelligent lal)or before the conflict between labor and 

 capital shall cease. In the battle of life every bayonet must 

 be a thinking bayonet, and it is largely in our schools and 

 colleges that the young soldiers must be equipped for duty. 



After one has completed his high-school course, however, 

 he may begin his preparation for some one industry, carrying 

 forward his general education in connection with such prep- 

 aration, and numerous institutes and technological schools 

 have been established to meet these requirements of our 

 industrial classes. One of the oldest of these is the 

 Rennssalaer Polytechnic Institute, at Troy, N. Y., founded 

 in 1(S24. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in 

 our own State, is one of the leading institutions of its kind 

 in this country. It is interesting to note the object which 

 this institute has in view, as stated in its pamphlet prepared 

 in connection with the Columbian Exposition : — 



While the applications of the sciences to the useful arts are 

 extensively taught in the Institute of Technology, the primary 

 purpose of the school is education. Not only are mere knacks 

 and devices and technical metliods constantly subordinated to the 

 acquisition of principles, but tliose principles are studied with the 

 predominant purpose to expand and develop the mind, to exercise 

 the powei's and to train the faculties of the pupil. What the in- 

 stitute aims to do is to graduate those who are, first, well-educated 

 men in all which that term implies, and who, secondly, have 

 studied the problems of some one technical profession, have mas- 

 tered the scientific principles related thereto, and have had a certain 

 amount of practice in the application of those principles to suck 

 problems. 



