PLACE IN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM. 63 



general system of practical education, connected with the various 

 modes of educating the people at large. We have scientific 

 schools, also, which have a practical bearing upon the progress 

 of the higher branches of the mechanic arts and industry and 

 scientific research. Now, in what relation do you expect that 

 the Agricultural College will stand to the common school 

 system ; for, from what you say, I am convinced that you will 

 be overrun with students, and will be obliged to enlarge your 

 establishment in order to accommodate the applicants ? The 

 question will come up very soon. How are you to meet the 

 applications from the large number of students who will prefer 

 the education which you give to that of the high schools, or 

 perhaps to that of some of the more advanced schools which do 

 not reach the level of high schools ? Have you any idea how 

 the agricultural colleges which exist in other States are to be 

 provided with all the professors needed in the various depart- 

 ments, and how do you think it will be possible to educate the 

 teachers for all these schools ? In other words, what kind of 

 normal school for agricultural teachers do you contemplate in 

 the future ? for with the growth of your school, and with the 

 growth of other schools throughout the United States, this will 

 become as imperative a demand as normal schools have become 

 a demand with reference to our common schools. From the 

 broad and comprehensive plan you have laid before us, from the 

 evidence you have given us that the very life of the majority of 

 the public is interested in the enlargement of this agricultural 

 education, I do not suppose that in your mind you conceive the 

 present dimensions of the college to be its limit ; and therefore 

 I have hit, I believe, upon the very point — the very prospect 

 which the future must open. A wise man ought to look ahead 

 in order not to bej^cramped when the time comes. 



Mr. Stockbridge. In reply your first question, " What part 

 the Agricultural College is to play in the educational system of 

 Massachusetts ? " I will say, that from my stand point (I may 

 be incorrect,) it will occupy the same position in relation to the 

 general system of education in Massachusetts that Cambridge 

 College does. It is an institution independent of the general 

 school system, exactly as Williams or Amherst or Harvard is. 

 Although it has been, and will be, I trust, aided by the State, it 

 does not form a part of the normal nor common school system 



