270 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



ing to enumerate the branches it should teach, or the number 

 of instructors it should have, I will only venture to state my 

 hearty concurrence in the suggestion, which some of the leading 

 papers in this state have made, that it be located near the region 

 of the Connecticut valley ; and that there be connected with it 

 a tract of land sufficiently ample for cultivating every variety 

 of crop, and for rearing every species of stock, suited to our 

 climate ; and still further, to add, that it should have cabinets 

 rich in the necessary apparatus, a botanic garden representing 

 all the great families of plants, a laboratory in which the work 

 of analysis should never stop, and a severity of discipline equal 

 to that of West Point. 



It would be an easy task to go on pointing out other advanta- 

 ges of such an institution, but I dare not presume further upon 

 your patience, than to allude to one or two, in addition to those 

 already hinted at in the progress of this discourse. It would 

 enable many a lad, not born on the farm, the sons of men in 

 professional life, or of merchants and artisans, to prepare them- 

 selves for agricultural pursuits. It would be a safety-valve to 

 the college, now disproportionately thronged, and would some- 

 times free it of a youth, whose frolicsome career betrays, that it 

 was not purely intellectual occupation for which nature intended 

 him, but rather, that admirable combination of hand-work with 

 head-work, which the farm so well supplies. 



And besides the improved methods of husbandry, which would 

 be likely to grow out of such an institution, may we not reason- 

 ably calculate upon its affording important aid in contending 

 with those diseases, to which the most important plants and 

 fruits seem liable, as the result of long, artificial cultivation 1 

 Consider, for a moment, the present position of society from the 

 threatened loss of the potato crop. Here is a disease in the 

 tuber of this plant, that, thus far, defies all scrutiny. We have 

 neither found its cause nor its remedy. And yet, as, in a time 

 of pestilence among men, few are so absurd as to look for miti- 

 gation or relief, except from the resources of science ; so here, 

 the most obtuse are probably convinced that our only hope is 

 in a similar direction. And what a splendid gift would it be, if 

 science shall be able to restore to us the independence we pos- 



