40 



vigorous measures for their extermination. 

 Such measures can be founded only on an accu- 

 rate knowledge of their form, habits, metamor- 

 phoses and modes of propagation. The science 

 of entomology reveals all the forms and phases 

 and wonders of insect life. It shows all the 

 mysteries of reproduction, at what season and 

 where the egg is deposited, how long it remains 

 an egg, when the grub comes forth, its struct- 

 ure, food, habits, whereabouts, duration; how 

 with millions of fellow grubs it works its mis- 

 chief to the crops, then coils itself up and lays 

 itself away to rest awhile in the chrysalis state, 

 from which, after all these vicissitudes it emer- 

 ges at last a perfect insect, lives its brief period, 

 lays innumerable eggs, and is gathered to its 

 fathers. Having such intimate acquaintance 

 with the times, seasons, changes, and modes of 

 growth of insects that are harmful to vegeta- 

 tion, a man may go about their extermination 

 intelligently, but without it he qan only make, 

 in some instances at least, such blind endeavors 

 as will lead to blundering failure. The workers 

 in this field are far too few. Clouds of locusts 

 are annually devastating vast areas within its 

 limits and yet there are not half a dozen well- 

 known entomologists in the entire Northwest. 

 Nor does the demand for scientific helpers in ag- 

 riculture stop here. We want scientists who 

 shall elucidate with precision every process by 

 which the lifeless mold shall be changed into 

 the marketable product with the least invest- 

 ment of muscle and money. Scientists who shall 

 teach how to preserve our forests and to extend 

 their areas by judicious planting until, as the 

 generations pass, the supply of timber shall 

 equal the consumption. Scientists who shall re- 

 veal the mysteries of economic feeding so that 

 our vast crops may produce the largest attain- 

 able amount and the finest quality of butter, 

 pork and beef. Scientists who can find beyond 

 cavil the cause and cure of the strange maladies 

 that at times sweep off our cattle and swine by 

 the thousand. Scientists who shall expound 

 those laws of breeding and treatment, under 

 which the lank scrub takes on at last the caliber 

 and contour of the symmetrical Short-horn, and 

 so save us finally from the anomaly of raising 

 and feeding the finest crops and masticating the 

 poorest beef in the world. 



Such is the condition of the industries, especi- 

 ally that of agriculture, such are their needs, 

 and such the training of the men required to 

 meet these needs. Are the national colleges pro- 

 ducing such men? The answer, though an af- 

 firmative one, cannot be given in a single sen- 

 tence. Nearly all of them have organized 

 with the simple purpose of pursuing the lead- 

 ing object set forth in the congressional grant. 

 Tney have gathered their faculties and equip- 

 ments and arranged their courses of study in 

 special reference to this leading object, and 

 entered honestly and earnestly on the line of 



effort assigned by law. Not two years since a 

 committee of congress, after an investigation 

 lasting nearly a year declared that " It is due to 

 the whole class of these institutions to say, that 

 there is nothing in the results thus far attained, 

 that can be called discouraging. A considera- 

 ble number of the colleges have done work 

 which requires no apology, and a few of those 

 earliest organized, have already found time to 

 take high rank among the institutions of the 

 land. The number of students in attendance 

 upon these schools, is already between three 

 and four thousand, and they have furnished 

 more than 1,600 graduates to the active occu- 

 pations of life. They are generally gathering 

 about themselves material appliances in the 

 form of farms, stock, work-shops, machinery, 

 books, and apparatus. More than two hundred 

 teachers are engaged in the work of instruc- 

 tion. There is evidence of an honest purpose to 

 make the studies pursued, such in variety, in 

 extent and in value as shall meet the require- 

 ments of the law to which they are indebted for 

 their endowment. Studies connected with agri- 

 culture and the mechanic arts, are made promi- 

 nent, if not par-amount, and there is reason to 

 believe that, by these means, the taste for 

 these branches of knowledge has been consider- 

 ably increased in the whole community." 



Now take notice that the report from which I 

 have quoted a single extract was written by a 

 committee appointed for the sole purpose of 

 finding whether these colleges were drifting 

 away from the spirit of the law which gave 

 them life; that the scrutiny made into their 

 condition was protracted and thorough to the 

 last degree. Nevertheless it is clear beyond 

 question that the industrial colleges have not, 

 as yet, supplied to any degree of fulness the 

 scientific workers which the progress of agri- 

 culture and the other great industries require. 

 It would be indeed unreasonable to expect so 

 large a result at so early a period. These in- 

 stitutions are in their infancy and the most se- 

 rious obstacle they are compelled to encounter, 

 is the insane demand by the multitude for im- 

 mediate fruits. Institutions of learning may 

 be early in their blossoming, but they are late 

 in fruiting. It were idle folly to attempt to 

 settle at present the value of the industrial 

 schools by an inventory of the distinguished 

 men who hold their diplomas. Little can be 

 learned as yet by the inspection of actual sam- 

 ples. A public project organized for the im- 

 provement, of things may reach early results, 

 but a great public project organized for the 

 moulding of men can find its ripened fruits 

 only in the distant future. Man-making is slow 

 business. Have patience ! Scarcely can a 

 graduate attain to such influence as to show to 

 the public the value of his training until he 

 has passed the middle age. The final worth of 

 the industrial learning gained at the national 



