1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



355 



For the liew England Farmer. 



NEW YORK STATE AGRICULTURAL 

 COLLEGE. 



Mr. Browx : — I have just received a pamphlet 

 containing the Charter, Ordinances, &c., of the 

 New York State Aj^ricultural College, from which I 

 learn that the Legislature of the State incorporated 

 the Institution in April, 1853, and that an organ- 

 ization has heen effected under the Act, hy tlie 

 choice of Jount Dklafield, President; John A. 

 King, Cliairman of the Board of Trustees; Joel 

 W. Bacon, Secretary of the Board ; and N. B. 

 Kidder, Treasurer. 



The Charter is quite brief, simply giving the 

 common rights and privileges incident to corpora- 

 tions ; prescribing that at least three hundred 

 acres of land sliall helong and be attached, to the 

 College ; that the plan of instruction shall em- 

 brace — practical and scientific agriculture, clicinis- 

 try, mathematics and mechanics, surveying and 

 engineering, geology and botany, the practical 

 management of the farm, of the dairy, of the va- 

 rious kinds of live stock ; also, such other branch- 

 es of knowledge as may be deemed useful and 

 proper. The capital stock is fixed by the corpo- 

 ration at sixty thousand dollars, divided in shares 

 of fifty dollars each ; and liberty is given to in- 

 crease the stock from time to time, as the Trus- 

 tees may judge advantageous and proper. The 

 corporation is to become active for the primary 

 purpose designed, when forty thousand dollars 

 shall have been subscribed, and fifty per cent, on 

 each share subscribed for shall have been paid in. 

 The College is to l)e endowed and put in operation 

 by private individual enterprise and liberality. 

 The Trustees have accordingly adopted measures 

 which will lay the subject before the farmers and 

 otiiers at once ; a!id a private letter from the Presi- 

 dent informs me tliat they have already been en- 

 couraged by liberal unsolicited subscriptions to 

 the stock. 



The corporation declare their chief object to be, 

 "to provide a syst.^n of instruction essential and 

 practically useful to tlie agricultural interests of 

 the State — at once combining theory with prac- 

 tice, aff)rding wholesome discipline to the mind. 

 an accumulation of knowledge, and promoting 

 habits of labor and industry." To this end, a 

 farm of not less than three hundred acres of varied 

 soil is to be connected with the college, and to be 

 managed with a view to the residts of a mixed 

 hust)andry. Tlie college year is to be divided 

 into two sessions. The first session, commencing 

 the first of April, and ending the first of October" 

 is to be mainly occupied in the conduct of the 

 field operations, interspersed with instruction rela- 

 tive thereto, thus aff.rding the students a practi- 

 cal knowledge of the various departments of the 

 farm. The second session, commencing the first 

 of November, ami ending the first of March, is to 

 be principally devoted to study and attendance 

 ■ upon courses of lectures, particularly and elabo- 

 rately illustrating ihe various subjects and scien- 

 ces bearing upon agricultural pursuits. The plan 

 for lectures marked out by the officers, is very 

 full and complete, leaving no subject of direct im- 

 portance to the farmer untouched. The course 

 of instruction for each student is to continue for 

 three consecutive years, at the expiration of 

 which, and upon the recommendation of the Presi- 



dent and Professors, the Trustees will confer di- 

 plomas. 



Each candidate for admission into the College, 

 must be able to read and write the English lan- 

 guage well and have a good knowledge of the 

 ground rules of arithmetic — must be at least six- 

 teen years of age, and give evidence of good moral 

 cliaracter. 



For the present, the charge for instruction, with 

 board and lodging, lights, fuel and wasliing, ia 

 fixed at three hundred dollars per annum, payable, 

 one-half at the commencement of the first, and 

 one-half at the commencement of the second ses- 

 sion ; but the Trustees intend to lessen the cost of 

 instruction, and make the distribution of knowl- 

 edge as free as possible, as fast as endowments or 

 State patronage shall permit. 



Judicious rules of discipline are adopted, the 

 enforcement of which will be calculated to pro- 

 mote industrious and virtuous habits. 



For one, I feel under great obligations to the 

 enterprising agriculturists of New York, who, by 

 their persevering labors, amid much contumely, 

 have at length succeeded in giving life and tangi- 

 ble shape to an Agricultural Institution, now acr 

 tually on the eve of commencing a practical, well- 

 defined course of instruction, where the young 

 farmer may gain informati(m in principles of great 

 importance to a proper and the most successful 

 prosecution of farming affairs, may have his mind 

 so expanded, refined and disciplined, as to render 

 succeeding life more agreeable and desirable, be- 

 cause the avenues for pleasurable emotions have 

 been greatly opened and increased. — more influen- 

 tial and beneficial, because the informed and dis- 

 ciplined mind is an engine of power and strength, 

 always fit f(ir valuable service as occasion may de- 

 mand. I trust tliat this Institution will greatly 

 flourish, and that other communities, observing its 

 good fruits, will be influenced to the establishment 

 of like advantages for the training of young men. 



Believe me, my friend, we have had quite enough 

 of speculation upon the possible and probable ad- 

 vantages of educating the young farmer ; every 

 needed argument has been stated, in every variety 

 of form and connection ; and now the great want 

 is action, 'practical action. Public and desultory 

 discussion can do but very little, if any more good; 

 earnest individual effort must develope system, and 

 set it in active practical operation. Those of us 

 here in New England, who believe it would not 

 hurt our forming youth to be better educated, in 

 our endeavors to pi'ovide the necessary facilities 

 for their instruction, must not look too high for 

 aid, or expect to bring it from afar; we must seek, 

 and shall find it among our enterprising liberal 

 private citizens. Legislative bodies will probably 

 grant us the chartered right, and privileges inci- 

 dent to incorporated schools of learning, but fur- 

 ther they will not, at present, aid us. Seldom 

 leading in new and untried plans of improvement, 

 they more generally reflect the views of that large 

 or major portion of the public who are content 

 witb customs long practised, and fear or despise, 

 rather than profoundly investigate and reason up- 

 on, those plans of action which lead out of, or be- 

 yond the beaten paths. An Institution for the in- 

 struction of young men in agricultural and rural 

 affairs, would be quite an innovation upon old ways: 

 and for a time at least, would doulitless be subject 

 to much contempt and ridicule, from persona of 



