70 



United States Naval Academy 1846 



Maryland Agricultural College 1858 



Massachusetts Agricultural College 1867 



Massac.hu*atts Institute of Technology 1861 



Michigan State Agri'-ultural College 1857 



Collection of Agricultural and Mechanical Arts, 



Minnesota 1870 



Collection of Agricultural and Mechanical Arts, 



Mississippi 1871 



Alcorn University, MiBSis-ippi 1871 



Missouri Agricultural and Mechanical College ....1870 



Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy 1871 



Agricultural College, Nebraska 1872 



New Hampshire College ;>f Agriculture 1868 



Scientific School of Kutger's College, New Jersey. .1864 

 Collection of Agricultural and Mechanical Arts, 



Cornell University, New York 1868 



United states Milita y Academy 1802 



Agricultural and Mechanical College ot North Car- 



oliua 1795 



Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College 1870 



Corvallis Sta'e Agricultural College, Oregon 1868 



Pennsylvania State College 1859 



Agricultural and Scientific Department, Brown 



University, Khode Island 



South Carolina Agricultural College and Mechani- 

 cal Institute 



Tennessee Agricultural College 1869 



Agricultural and Mechanical College, Texas 



Stafi Agricultural College, Vermont 1865 



Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College 1872 



Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute 1872 



Agricultural Department of West Virginia Univer- 



sity 



18R7 



College of Arts, Universl' y of Wisconsin 



Many literary institutions have also adapted 

 their instruction to the popular demand by the 

 arrangem ent of scientific departments or courses. 

 These are doubtless of service, and might be 

 more so if such institutions were better provided 

 with material and apparatus. But in many lit- 

 erary institutions the physical sciences are un- 

 fortunately held at a discount, and their utility 

 as a means of discipline is underrated or abso- 

 lutely denied. 



What proportion of young farmers will pursue 

 a thorough course in agricultural colleges we 

 cannot predict ; many of them at the present 

 evidently do not see the necessity of such train- 

 ing, and the short time that has elapsed since the 

 establishment of these colleges has not been suf- 

 ficient to furnish unassailable demonstration of 

 their utility. We may, however, with confidence 

 expect that a sufficient number will attend to be 

 of great use to the farming interest. To men 

 thoroughly educated in our agricultural colleges 

 must be committed the solution of most of the 

 knotty problems that now stand in the way of 

 the farmers' progress. 



Shorter and special courses having direct rela- 

 tion to some prospective business may possibly 

 be more popular at the outset than the fuller 

 course. Even such a course it is hoped may suf- 

 fice to put students in possession of the means 

 and methods of investigation, and to open to 

 them the various sources of useful information. 



It should be borne in mind that agricultural 

 colleges were not intended to supersede common 

 schools butto supplement them. A good common 

 school education should be obtained before the 

 student enters the college, and the young man 

 who has failed to make good use of the common 

 school or its equivalent has clearly no place in 

 the college. If examinations for admission are 

 sufficiently strict, so far as common school 

 branches are concerned, a very beneficial influ- 

 ence will be exerted on the pupils and studies of 

 the common schools. Students who attend col- 

 lege for a special course might, however, be ad- 

 mitted on showing themselves prepared to pur- 

 sue that specialty with success. 



An objection has been raised to the appropri- 

 ation of public monies for agricultural schools, 

 on the ground that, while the benefits cap be en- 

 joyed by a part of the people, the cost is levied 

 upon the whole. To this it may be said that a 

 kind of education which is confessedly necessary 

 to develop the material resources of the country, 

 and supply material for the arts in peace, and 



also the sinews of war, is as much a matter of 

 national concern as the naval or military train- 

 ing by which government seeks to provide for 

 the common defense. But the objection is based 

 on the mistaken notion that these agricultural 

 colleges, so-called, are really monotechnic, When 

 in fact, they were designed to teach, and do teach 

 an the branches of learning that relate to agri- 

 culture and the mechanic arts, and are therefore 

 truly polytechnic. If exception is taken to the 

 name because one art is named while many are 

 taught, it will be remembered that there is at 

 least the same propriety in naming a school of 

 all the arts after one or two of them, that there 

 is in calling all the phonetic symbols of the Ian- 

 gauge the A B C, or the alpha beta. 



The provision so munificently made in this 

 country for agricultural education is one of 

 the most noteworthy facts of the times. It is 

 so recent that at present the effect is not clearly 

 seen, and can only be foreshadowed by an ef- 

 fort of the imagination; some results, how- 

 ever, we may confidently anticipate. We may 

 hope to diminish the immense distance between 

 our possible and our actual attainments in 

 farming as seen in the largeness of all our 

 premium crops, and the meagreness of our 

 general averages. The best wheat crops in 

 Great Britain, do not exceed the best in this 

 country, but the average crop there is more 

 than twice as great as the average crop here. 



Not only may we expect an increase in the 

 quantity of farm products, but also an improve- 

 ment in the quality. This is already seen in re- 

 gard to cheese, and in some localities in regard 

 to butter. It is especially true of many fruits 

 and vegetables, and still more notably true of 

 almost all varieties of domestic animals. 



The adaptation and employment of machinery 

 in farming operations instead of hand labor, 

 will have the effect to reduce greatly the cost of 

 production. The use of steam will, in many 

 cases, enable us to diminish the expense of 

 animal forces. 



From the improved drainage of the country, 

 which a better agriculture will necessitate, there 

 will result increased salubrity. Malarious dis- 

 eases, and even consumption have been almost 

 banished from well drained regions. Improved 

 sewerage about dwellings and farm buildings 

 will prevent many of the most fatal diseases 

 both of men and animals. 



Increased comfort and beauty of the dwell- 

 ings of the agricultural population is another 

 benefit we may safely anticipate. When rural 

 architecture and landscape gardening, and hor- 

 ticulture in all its branches are better under- 

 stood by the farmer, the effect on his home 

 will soon be manifest and the improvement of 

 the home will promote the refinement and hap- 

 piness of his family. 



Improved agriculture is intimately connected 

 with general prosperity, the chief production of 

 the raw material to be used in the arts is im- 

 portant, as is also the cheapness of living. The 

 good of all classes requires that the farmer 

 should be enabled to realize his cherished ideal 

 viz.: of producing the bent of everything, at the 

 least possible cost. 



Gentlemen, this Centennial year of our na- 

 tional existence might very well begin a new 

 era in regard to agricultural education. If the 

 American farmer instead of feeling that no 

 special preparation of himself is required, 

 would at once endeavor to secure for himself 

 and for his sons and daughters, a thorough ac- 

 quaintance with all the branches of knowledge 

 that relate to his noble calling, as soon as this 

 knowledge could be applied to the practical de- 

 tails of farm life, we should see the quantity 

 and quality of our farm products equal to the 

 best of other countries, or even as much supe- 

 rior as we now consider the most of our agri- 

 cultural implements and machinery. 



