64 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of the State, any more than Cambridge, Amherst or Williams, 

 all of which have been aided by the State. 



The next question is, how shall we obtain teachers for our 

 own Agricultural College, and how shall teachers be obtained 

 by all the other Agricultural Colleges of the nation, that are 

 now springing into existence. That is a question that was 

 asked eight or ten years ago. I remember, in 1858, when I, 

 with some others, threw the Agricultural College ball into the 

 legislature, all hands began to knock it round with their clubs, 

 and the club that hit it hardest was, *' You haven't anybody 

 who has been educated to teach ! " The answer was, " You 

 must commence in the common schools. The common school 

 teachers must teach agriculture." That idea was started in 

 1860, or somewhere about there. Now, I must say that I am 

 just as much in the dark to-day, as then. I do not know how 

 we are to get the men, but I have faith in the men of Massa- 

 chusetts, that when a demand is made, the men will be found. 

 It was only last week that a gentleman from Iowa came to 

 Amherst, and said, " We are after men to start a college in 

 Iowa, and we have come to Massachusetts for them." I said, 

 " Wait four years. We are training men for your Iowa col- 

 lege. I have no doubt we shall make some good ones for you." 

 That is all I could say to him. I know we shall make some 

 good men, if they will only wait long enough. We have the 

 raw material ; I believe somebody will work it up. 



Professor Agassiz. I believe there is an interest in agricul- 

 tural, scientific, commercial and military education, which is 

 now scattered, but which might be concentrated and made to 

 work much more effectively than now. That is what I wish to 

 reach. My question was with reference to the possibility of 

 contriving some way by which the efforts of the friends of these 

 various educational institutions, which are now organized in 

 different parts of this State and throughout the country, may 

 be combined, so that they shall help each other. In the scien- 

 tific school at Cambridge, we are just as much at a loss to know 

 what we shall do as you probably are, in reference to the future 

 when your pupils shall be increased. Our means are entirely 

 insufficient, and I suppose yours are entirely insufficient ; and 

 I think the time has come when we should make it known to 

 the community how in this age — which is an age in which all 



