No. 4.] AGEICULTURAL EDUCATION. 361 



ing funds to be applied in establishing an experimental farm 

 and agricultural school connected with it, designed to furnish 

 instruction in every branch o'f rural economy, theoretical and 

 practical. 



B. V. Feench. 



Seth Sprague. 



John Brooks. 



Acting on the recommendation in the above report, the 

 Board appointed Messrs. French, Newell, Sprague, Wilder 

 and Secretary Flint a committee. As a result of this action 

 the Legislature incorporated the Massachusetts School of 

 Agriculture (Acts of 185(3, chapter 236). 



By this act, Marshall P. Wilder of Dorchester, Benjamin 

 V. French of Braintree, George W. Lyman of Waltham, 

 Seth Sprague of Duxbury, Moses Newell of Newbury, 

 Richard S. Fay of Lynn and Samuel Hooper of Boston 

 (Messrs. Wilder, Newell, French and Sprague were mem- 

 bers of the State Board of Agriculture), and their associates 

 and successors, were made a corporation, by the name of 

 the " Trustees of the Massachusetts School of Agriculture," 

 for the purpose of "holding, maintaining and conducting 

 an experimental farm and school thereupon, with all need- 

 ful buildings, library, apparatus and appurtenances, for the 

 promotion of agricultural and horticultural art within this 

 Commonwealth." 



Concerning this movement President Wilder said : — 



This plan seemed to accord better with the phase of public 

 sentiment, and efforts were in progress for the establishment 

 of such a school, which promised to be successful. A liberal 

 proposal had been received from the heirs of William H. Gary, 

 at Lexington, for the establishment of it in that town, another 

 from the city of Springfield, where nearly forty thousand 

 dollars had been subscribed, and an offer of the town farm and 

 buildings had been made by the city on condition of locating 

 the school there. ... In their report of April, 1861, the 

 Trustees state that they have been induced to locate the School 

 in Springfield, and expressed the hope that they might, at no 

 distant day, lay the foundation of the Massachusetts School of 

 Agriculture, as one of the permanent institutions of the State. ^ 



' From " Historical Address " delivered at the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 College, on the occasion of graduatiii.i^ its first class, July 10, 1871. 



