No. 4.] AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 265 



furnish an opportunity for the middle classes that was not 

 found elsewhere. Broad in conception, broad in character, 

 broad in opportunities and broad in acres, the agricultural 

 college fits men in a practical way to meet the demands of 

 the times. President Goodell, in the report above referred 

 to, says : " Many of the youth received their entire support 

 from home, but many others are supporting themselves by 

 their own exertions, almost or wholly unaided, and many 

 others come from homes where every dollar contributed to 

 the education of a son involves some appreciable sacrifice." 



During the years of its history the college and its work 

 have been marks for the shafts of criticism. It is often said 

 that the accomplishments are not commensurate with the 

 costs; that the classes are small; that, while ostensibly for 

 the benefit of agriculture, its real tendency is in other lines; 

 that a majority of the senior class, who have their option 

 during the last year of the course, do not choose agricult- 

 ure ; that it is a great barnacle upon an over-taxed public 

 administration. Are these criticisms born of intelligence? 

 Are they just? If I do not answer them in considering 

 the last clause of my subject, then I cannot answer them 

 at all. 



Let us step outside of its general school work, its curricu- 

 lum, its care and training of young men, which will compare 

 favorably with other institutions, for the present, and trace 

 some of the numerous benefits that accrue to the farming 

 com in unities. 



Conditions among the farmers have almost completely 

 changed since the early history of our State. Microbes 

 have supplanted ghosts. Gypsy moths have supplanted 

 witches. Pests innumerable have manifested themselves, to 

 the discomfiture of the horticulturist, the market gardener 

 and the farmer. Misfortunes have come to the farm and the 

 forest along the line of advancing years that formerly did 

 not appear, — tuberculosis and other diseases, the gypsy 

 moth and canker worm and fruit-destroying parasites, that 

 have called for skilled labor and experiments in the field 

 of entomology. In other words, we have been obliged to 

 combat these myriad pests by checks and counter-checks 

 and checks drawn upon the State Treasurer. 



