76 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



order. It was to be well equipped with apparatus and books, a 

 farm with stock and tools, and the necessary professors, not only 

 to systematize and teach all useful agricultural knowledge, but 

 also to make original investigations and experiments for the 

 advancement of the art. 



The Board of Agriculture heartily approving this plan, it was 

 adopted by the legislature, and the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 College was incorporated. It is somewhat remarkable that it is 

 the only institution in the United States designed exclusively 

 for the education of farmers. The members of the corporation 

 were elected by the legislature for life, and were chosen from 

 among the prominent friends of agriculture. Subsequently the 

 Board of Agriculture was made a Board of Overseers of the 

 College. 



It having thus been decided that the farmers were to enjoy 

 the benefits of an independent, professional school, its precise 

 character and location came under consideration. Tlie law 

 required that it should be called the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 College, from which it must be inferred that the legislature 

 designed it to hold a prominent position among our educational 

 institutions. The course of study and instruction was obviously 

 intended to be superior, at least in some respects, to that of our 

 existing public schools ; and to secure the proper establishment 

 of the college upon a basis satisfactory to the people, it was re- 

 quired that the location, plan of organization, and course of 

 instruction, which might be adopted by the trustees, should be 

 approved by the governor and council, before any decisive steps 

 were taken for its erection. 



President Henry F. French, having given the subject of agri- 

 cultural education a great amount of attention, and having 

 visited the principal schools and colleges of this country and of 

 Great Britain, prepared a plan for the establishment of the col- 

 lege at Amherst, which was unanimously adopted by the trus- 

 tees and approved by the governor and council. 



An excellent farm, of nearly four hundred acres, having been 

 purchased in the valley of the Connecticut, and suitable build- 

 ings completed, the college received its first class on the second 

 of October, 1867. On that day thirty-three young men, averag- 

 ing nearly eighteen years of age, most of them sons of farmers, 

 presented themselves for examination. The growth of the insti- 



