80 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



"vrork, in collecting and handling fish, which Agassiz has volun- 

 tarily done in acquiring that knowledge which has made him 

 the greatest ichthyologist of all the ages ? Who can realize, 

 while listening to his brilliant and instructive lectures or con- 

 versation, that he has been the most laborious and zealous collec- 

 tor of specimens in zoology ever known ; or that he, of all men, 

 should have passed many of the best years of his life in studying 

 the embryology and habits of the slowest and coldest-blooded 

 quadrupeds — the turtles ? When importuned to leave this 

 apparently unprofitable and disagreeable labor to engage in lec- 

 turing, which seems to most persons so much more useful and 

 delightful, and by which he could readily amass a fortune, he 

 answered with most unselfish devotion to the cause of science, 

 " I cannot afford time to make money." Education certainly 

 did not spoil him for work, and the people need have no fear 

 that their sons would become unfit for labor, if sent to Amherst 

 for instruction. 



But from present indications it would seem that scientific 

 attainments and professional training for farmers are not very 

 highly esteemed in this part of the Commonwealth. While the 

 wisest statesmen and the most intelligent friends of progressive 

 agriculture are profoundly impressed with the necessity of 

 special education for that business, and while institutions for 

 this purpose are being numerously established and riclily 

 endowed in all civilized countries ; while Prussia, whose power 

 and resources now astonish the world, is justly celebrated for 

 the number and surpassing excellence of her agricultural 

 schools ; and while the Massachusetts Agricultural College, with 

 its beautiful farm, its commodious buildings, its ample equip- 

 ment, its competent instructors, and its crowd of students, 

 invites their attention and patronage, what is the interest 

 manifested in this momentous subject by the citizens of 

 Berkshire ? 



Precisely this. With a population largely engaged in culti- 

 vating the soil ; with three flourishing agricultural societies ; 

 with three memljcrs of the Board of Overseers and two of the 

 trustees of the college residing among them, and with the 

 standing offer of a free scholarship to any suitable applicant, 

 not a solitary student has appeared for admission to the college 

 this year. 



