No. 4.] NEW ENGLAND AGRICULTURE. 113 



shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical 

 studies and including niilitaiy tactics, to teach such branches 

 of learning as are related to auriculture and the mechanic 

 arts, in order to promote the liberal and practical education 

 of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and 2y^'^fC''^''^ions 

 in life." These colleges were intended, therefore, to pro- 

 vide, at public expense, places in which the youth of the 

 several States could secure a training which wouhl fit them 

 for leadership in the various industrial pursuits, rather than' 

 in the so-called learned professions, which were already pro- 

 vided for by existing institutions. If this original design 

 were kept clearly in view in the courses of study provided, 

 and some general designation adopted (like State College, 

 for instance, which is used in Maine and a number of other 

 States), young men would naturally seek and find there the 

 kind of training pointed out by their individual aptitudes, 

 or by the prevailing occupations in their respective States. 

 And it should be especially observed that, while the law of 

 Congress emphasizes this kind of training and makes it the 

 leading ol)iect of the colleges thus provided for, it is equally 

 careful to provide that no other branch of learning shall be 

 excluded. In short, the law clearly recognizes the need of 

 both a general and a technical education, and, in its whole 

 spirit and purpose, aims to assist every aspiring, ambitious 

 youth, especially those belonging to the industrial classes, 

 in securing an education as sound, as thorough and as ad- 

 vanced as is procurable, at any cost, in the best institutions, 

 and, at the same time, adapted to his special purposes in life. 



Let me not be misunderstood. There will always be room 

 and place for the best educated men on the farms, either as 

 managing owners or as hired su})erintendents ; and, accord- 

 ingly, the agricultural college, whether l)earing that distinc- 

 tive name or a more general one, will have its necessary and 

 honorable place in the educational system. But my point 

 here is, that }'oung men having their way to make in the 

 world and needing a ready return in money will generally 

 be able, in highly organized industrial communities like 

 Massachusetts, to put their training to more profitable irn- 

 mediaie use in some other industry than in agriculture. 



This brings us to the question, then, whether any cduca- 



