318 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Report to the Legislature of the State Board 

 OF Agriculture, actixg as Overseers 

 of the Massachusetts Agricult- 

 ural College. 



[P. S., Chap. 20, Sect. 5, adopted by the Board, Feb. 6, 1895.] 



Under the Bv-laws, "the committee on Aofricultural 

 ColleiZ'e and education "is " charijed with the duties of tlie 

 Board as Overseers of the Massachusetts Agricultural Col- 

 lege, as provided for in chapter 20, section 5, of the Public 

 Statutes." These duties, as prescril)ed by the Governor and 

 Council, comprise rtot only visits to the college and attend- 

 ance upon its exercises, but also an inspection of its property, 

 observation of its instruction, with suggestions and recom- 

 mendations. 



It would be most fitting and quite in accordance with the 

 wishes of your committee to preface this report by a rehearsal 

 of those enactments by national and State legislatures which 

 have given the college "a local ha])itation and a name;" 

 those epochs in its history which mark successive triumphs 

 over active opposition or a more baleful apathy ; and indeed 

 that wise statesmanship and those brilliant examples of 

 individual championship which have resulted in such a herit- 

 age to the Commonwealth cannot become too familiar, and 

 are not likely to be too often commended to our notice. 

 But, as these historical antecedents have been repeatedly 

 alluded to in previous reports, it is thought that in the 

 interest of brevity they may be safely omitted, with a passing 

 reference, however, to records accessible in "Agriculture of 

 Massachusetts ; " for the present status of the college can be 

 duly appreciated only as it is viewed through the medium of 

 its past history. The volumes for 1863, 1864, 1868-69, 



