No. 4.] OPENING ADDRESS. 15 



in Massachusetts ; and Velorous Taft got up and said that 

 this being an occasion of confidence he would say that he 

 too had been opposed to it, but that he had come and seen, 

 and was converted. 



I note in looking over the addresses delivered at that 

 time that there was the same trouble thirty years ago that 

 {here is at the present time. Mr. Clift delivered an address 

 on "How to make farming profitable." He said: "You 

 farmers must bring your farms into a condition to produce 

 two and one-half tons of hay per acre, and if you can bring 

 your land beyond that, put in more land. "What you want 

 is [he repeated it three times] manure, manure, manure ; 

 and with all your gettings, get manure." Professor Agassiz 

 on that occasion spoke on "The origin of agricultural soils." 

 X. A. Willard spoke on " Dairy products," and he, too, has 

 gone beyond the river. Alexander Hyde spoke on ' ' The 

 hay crop." He made the statement that by the census of 

 1865 the hay product was something like thirteen millions, 

 while the products of the corn and all other crops amounted 

 to not exceeding four millions. Professor Stockbridge, the 

 Nestor of Agriculture and the only one remaining of those 

 who were here at that time, spoke on the "Art of agriculture," 

 but ever since that time he has been speaking not on the art 

 but on the practice of agriculture. Colonel Clark, in mak- 

 ing an address on the college, spoke of what he wanted, and 

 he wanted everything under the sun . "When I tell you what 

 the college had, you can readily understand why he wanted 

 bo much. There were four buildings only, no green-house, 

 no equipment whatsoever. There were four professors, and 

 no library, no apparatus. Now I think if these good men 

 who were here at that time and who so heartily subscribed 

 to what Colonel Clark said, and agreed to use their influ- 

 ence with the Legislature, — I think they would be im- 

 pressed if they could come back now and see that instead 

 of four buildings we have twenty-eight ; a library of over 

 nineteen thousand volumes, containing all the latest scien- 

 tific works, — a first-class working library; instead of four 

 professors, we have a teaching force of eighteen ; instead of 

 no equipment and no apparatus, we have some of the finest 

 in the land. 



