No. 4.] AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 323 



For a succession of days, with open eyes and alert per- 

 ceptive faculties, the committee has passed in and out amid 

 the varied activities of this hive of human industry, and the 

 question has recurred, with ever-increasing emphasis, " How 

 can the fruits of this institution be made more available to 

 those in whose interest they are maturing?" Whether the 

 attention has been directed to producing and utilizing crops 

 or to investigating the habits and history of insect pests which 

 destroyed them, to the care and management of domestic 

 animals in health or their treatment in disease and suffering, 

 in field and laboratory, in museum and library, the ever- 

 present interrogatory has been, "Do the farmers of Massa- 

 chusetts know what is being done for them ? " 



In the attempt to inventory the resources of the institu- 

 tion we have seen fields — and that, be it remembered, in 

 *« sterile New England" — which, like the land of the Nile 

 in the seven plenteous years, literally "brought forth by 

 handfuls ; " in threading devious passages of its crowded 

 halls we have stumbled over implements of tillage represent- 

 ing every stage of progress from the rudest and most primi- 

 tive to the latest triumph of inventive genius, and wanting 

 only arrangement to present a complete "history of agri- 

 culture " addressed to the eye ; in seeking the latest ex- 

 ponent of modern progress we have encountered improve- 

 ments which seemed almost to elevate agriculture to a rank 

 among the fine arts. 



Of these improvements a fitting climax is reached in the 

 new barn, just completed. Without attempt at description, 

 which if worthy of its object might be accepted as a substi- 

 tute for a personal inspection, and if inadequate were better 

 omitted, its location upon a gentle declivity and its modest 

 style of architecture impart an air of unobtrusiveness like 

 that of the department which it typifies, but once beneath 

 its all-sheltering roof it grows upon the senses and expands 

 until in capacity and purpose it seems ' ' as broad and general 

 as the casing air ; " and in this marvel of solid completeness 

 and skilful adaptation, a walk through which would be to 

 many a Massachusetts farmer a liberal education, agricultu- 

 rally speaking, the question recurs, " How can such an 



