THE AGRICULTURAL STUDENTS. . 21 



fit it up for a chemical department, wliicli is to commence its 

 active operations at the beginning of the next term. 



But now I come to the most important part of the college. 

 All these things are what money can buy ; I come now to what 

 money cannot buy. I want you to know about those young 

 men who sit back there. I have not very often told them what 

 I thought of them ; I have not had occasion to. They attend 

 to their business and I attend to mine. We do not interfere 

 with one another at all. I am proud to say, I have been a 

 teacher twenty years, I have been connected with institutions 

 having, on an average, 200 to 250 students, and I am free to 

 say that I never saw a likelier set of students than these are. 

 And now I do not hesitate to say, that there cannot be 

 found a school in this State, certainly not a college, where the 

 students have attended to their business better than here. I 

 will say, that there has been no case whatever of discipline this 

 term. We have had two classes, a freshman and sophomore 

 class, and if there is ever a term when you may expect trouble, 

 it is the first term under those circumstances. I desire here to 

 thank these gentlemen, true gentlemen, of the sophomore class, 

 that they did what I asked them to do, — treated their fellow- 

 students like gentlemen ; and never, to my knowledge, has an 

 insulting word been uttered or an insulting look been given by 

 a sophomore to a freshman. 



Well, the boys look well enough, but the question is, where 

 did they come from ? Some men said, in the first place, we 

 shouldn't have any students. It don't appear so to me as 1 

 look upon the large body of students here assembled. In the 

 second place, it was said if we did have any, they would be only 

 children — infants. If anybody wants to take hold of them as 

 infants, they can try it. They are able to take care of them- 

 selves, and go home alone. 



So much for their size and conduct. As for their scholarship, 

 I leave that to your committee to report upon. They have 

 attended the examination of the classes at the end of every 

 term, and they will report in regard to the general ability of 

 these students. 



Then the question is, where did they come from ? Some 

 said, first, we shouldn't have any students ; second, if we did 

 have any they would be infants ; third, if we did have any, or 



