DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING. 6T 



liimself before us, who has educated himself, who has been to no 

 normal school, but the school of nature herself, and who has fitted 

 himself to become the teacher of all mankind, we may rest 

 assured in the faith that the American mind, if not taught bj 

 normal schools, will train itself into teaching. No better example 

 occurs to my mind than that of the gentleman who has just sat 

 down. I certainly can say for one — and I think my fellow-mem- 

 bers upon tlie Board of Agriculture at that time will join me in 

 saying — that with the knowledge we had of that fine Yankee 

 common sense, that keen intelligence and that practical experi- 

 ence which the gentleman possessed, we did not expect, after all, 

 when we selected him, that we should find him so well fitted for 

 the practical task which he has taken upon himself, and which, 

 so far, he has proved himself so well qualified to perform. When,, 

 too. Prof. Chadbourne was selected as president of the college — 

 a man very little known to the mass of the people of the Com- 

 monwealth — it seemed to us, for a time, as if he was developing 

 himself, almost as by the providence of God, for the purpose for 

 which he was appointed. I think we can rest assured, there- 

 fore, if there is teaching to be done, that teachers will come ; 

 just as we can say that there was teaching before normal schools 

 existed. 



In saying this, I do not mean to intimate for a moment that 

 we have no need of training for teachers ; because I think the 

 great danger in any college is, that the teachers will become 

 scholars merely, and will not have the ability to apply their 

 teaching in their own personal experience. The men who sus- 

 tain the idea of this college are men who do not feel as we do 

 who have thought more upon the subject, so much the necessity 

 of more accurate scientific knowledge, as they did the desire 

 that there should be a place where farmers' boys could be taught 

 farming in a more general sense. I agree that that is the great 

 want of the farmers of the Commonwealth ; but in saying that, 

 I do not mean to suggest that this is all that is needed ; but 1 

 mean to suggest that this is what we felt, who were more nearly 

 connected, as we supposed, with the wants of farmers and 

 farmers' sons, to be the want in their minds ; and it was for that 

 reason that it was thought, more especially by the gentlemen 

 connected with the Board of Agriculture, and more intimately 

 associated with the agricultural societies of the Commonwealth, 



