THE GENESEE FARMER. 



(EMtac's €alile. 



,^ 



An Agricultural College in' New York. — 

 After an effort of thirty-one years to obtain a 

 charier for an agricultural college from the Leg- 

 islature of New York, the favor has at last been 

 reluctantly grante<i. What amount of money is 

 appropriated to endow the institution, or what 

 particular plan of education is contemplated, we 

 know not ; but we trust that something creditable 

 to New York will be the fruit of so long a delay. 



The trustees of the college are John Delafield, 

 Henry Wager, William Kelly, John A. King, N. 

 B. Kidder, Joel W. Bacon, William Buell, Tall- 

 MADGE Delafield, Robert J. Swan, and such oth- 

 ers as may be associated with them. Perhaps a 

 better selection as a whole could not be made ; 

 and we feel confident that whatever can bo done, 

 under existing circumstance?, to command success 

 and realize tlie hopes of the devoted friends of 

 agricultural education, will be accomplished. — 

 Many difficulties are to be encountered and over 

 come before well qualified professors, good text- 

 books, proper anatomical and jihysiological muse- 

 ums, and a truly scientific and practical school 

 can be seen in this or any other State of the 

 Union. Few men have fairly considered the 

 obstacles which have hithei'to prevented the pro- 

 duction of any creditable works in the sevoial 

 departments of agricultural science by Ameri- 

 cans; and the gentlemen most interested iii this 

 last movement in behalf of rural litcj-ature and 

 science, in connection with tillage and husbandry, 

 should turn their attention at once to the produc- 

 tion of the needful text-books for the use of pupil." 

 and teachers. What would a medical college be 

 without good books on anatomy, physiology, 

 materia medica, chemistry, surgery, obstetrics, 

 theory and practice of physic, and other branches 

 of the healing art? No school can prosper with- 

 out the daily use of suitable books, and such can- 

 not be made in a month or a year by raw hands. 

 A new profession is to be built up from scattered 

 and rudimental elements; and the labor of gath- 

 ering at one place all the necessary material to 

 form a large and flourishing institution, which 

 shall, do honor to a commonwealth that contains 

 a half million of enlightened and independent 

 farmers, is a work of no ordinary character. The 

 farm and grounds are to consist of not less than 

 three hundred acres, and the college buildings 

 should be sufficient to accommodate an equal 

 number of students. 



W^e shall watch and chronicle the movements 

 of this industrial school with lively interest, for 

 the idea of uniting a liberal measure of intellec- 

 tual and moral culture with a reasonable amount 

 of agricultural and mechanical labor, we have 

 fondly cherished from our boyhood. It is the 

 hope cf the masses, the high promise of their 

 freedom and honest toil. But without an earnest, 

 steady, and systematic effort, the people to be 

 benefitted by this agricultural college are doomed 

 to experience another disappointment. They will, 

 however, hold the men who have the matter in 

 charge to a strict accountability. Impossibilities 

 will not be expected, nor asked ; but whatever 

 wisdom, industry, and. money can accomp]i?h, 

 should be done to place agricultural education on 

 the most favorable footiuEr. 



The United States AcRiruLTgRAL Society. — The first 

 idea of the organization of this Society orieinated with the 

 Massachusetts Board of Agriculture.' in January, ISol. — 

 Farmers' Companion and Jlorticaliural Gazette, Mav, 



1853. 



Statements similar to the above, giving the 

 Massachusetts Board of Agriculture credit for 

 originating the idea of the organization of the 

 existing United States Agiicultuial Society, have 

 frequently been made and not hitherto contra- 

 dicted. It is due to the truthfulness of history 

 that the error be corrected while the parties are 

 living who know the facts as they occiiired. Mr. 

 Delafield, late President of the N. Y. State Agri- 

 cultural Society, Mr. Johnson, its present Secre- 

 tary, Mr. Calvert, President of the Maryland 

 State Agricultural Society, Mr. Holcomb, of Dela- 

 ware, author of the Constitution of the United 

 States Society, Mr. F. G. Skinner, editor of the 

 Ploicgh, Loom, and Anvil, Senator Rusk, of Texas, 

 and many others, know that the proprietor of 

 this journal labored to establish the present U. S. 

 Agricultural Society before January, 1851 ; nor 

 will the distinguished President of the Society, 

 who, as President of the Massachusetts Board of 

 Agriculture, oft'ered the resoluton in favor of a 

 National Society, which was adopted in January, 

 1851, deny our previous correspondence with 

 him to secure his powerful aid and leadership in 

 the matter. It would be easy to let this corres- 

 pondence speak for itself, for there is nothing in 

 it but sentiments which reflect the highest credit 

 on Col. Wilder. 



It is now thii'ty-three years since we wrote our 

 first article for the press in favor of an agricid 



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