ACCURATE EXPERIMENTAL KNOWLEDGE. 207 



tures which had just been delivered on Market-Gardening and 

 Small Fruit Culture, forced on your Committee the conviction 

 that the theory of agriculture without the practice, was like 

 faith without works. 



The boarding-house is furnished with bedding, cooking uten- 

 sils and furniture by the trustees. A steward takes possession 

 of the house, and furnishes board at a certain rate per week. 

 This, in point of economy, we think is a bad arrangement. Let 

 a competent person take charge of the house, and under the di- 

 rection of the trustees purchase his stores at wholesale prices, 

 and supply his tables with dairy products from the farm, and 

 with vegetables from a " model vegetable garden," and with beef, 

 pork, mutton and poultry raised and fatted on the farm, and let 

 board be furnished the students at the lowest practicable rates. 

 This would at once create a home market for the products of the 

 farm ; and were the students required to become familiar with 

 the best methods by which these supplies are produced, they 

 would acquire lessons in agriculture of more practical value 

 than they could possibly learn in the laboratory or lecture-room. 



A cultivated farm in connection with an agricultural college, 

 conveys to the public mind the idea of a model farm, or a farm 

 at least so far as relates to the cultivation of the soil or to hus- 

 bandry in general, where all is done under the light of science 

 and in the most approved manner, and whose operations in prac- 

 tical agriculture it would be both safe and desirable to follow. 



Farmers throughout the Commonwealth are eagerly looking 

 to the college for that light which is to guide them to success in 

 their calling. 



Success in agriculture depends to a great extent on an accur 

 rate experimental knoivledge. And we think a series of experi- 

 ments should be assigned to each class, and the results accurately 

 noted and published for the benefit of the community at large. 

 While we would not have less agricultural instruction in the 

 lecture-room, we would have more exemplified on the farm. 



So far as it is possible to do so, let every theory taught in the 

 college be practically illustrated on the farm. 



The foregoing suggestions are made with great deference to 

 the board of trustees who have these matters in charge, know- 

 ing as we do the many obstacles they have had to contend with, 

 and in the full belief that many extenuating circumstances 



