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allotted for that purpose should be used in the establishment 

 of numerous schools of agriculture scattered in the rural 

 districts ; or in order not to scatter the funds too much, that 

 one or several such schools should be established at easily 

 accessible points. On the other hand, it was contended that 

 in view of the utter inadequacy of the funds if thus applied, 

 and in view also of the use of the words "college" and 

 "sciences," the intention was that one or more institutions 

 of college grade, for the training of agricultural experts 

 and teachers, would be the most feasible way to fulfill the 

 intent of the Morrill Act, so that farm schools, or instruc- 

 tion in agriculture in the rural common and high schools, 

 could be gradually brought about. 



Some states, e.g., Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Kansas, at 

 once adopted the first or * * popular ' ' plan, and took pains to 

 establish the agricultural college far away from the sup- 

 posed pernicious influence of the state universities, where, 

 as it was urged, boys would be "educated away from the 

 farm," and be looked down upon by the students in the 

 literary and scientific courses. 



Having in 1868 been charged by the Regents of the 

 University of Mississippi with the organization of the state 

 agricultural college in connection with the university, and 

 finding irreconcilable differences of opinion among the col- 

 leges already established, I wrote to Senator Morrill himself 

 for an authoritative statement of his views and intentions 

 in framing the bill bearing his name. He replied that while 

 his object, as stated in the bill, was to have the industrial 

 masses better educated in their pursuits, he had purposely 

 left the several states to determine, by trial or otherwise, 

 how this object could best be accomplished ; but that in the 

 absence of any adequate number of competent teachers for 

 agricultural schools, he thought the establishment of at 

 least one high-class college in each state to be necessary. 

 The states themselves should do the rest. I should add that 

 in Mississippi I was compelled by popular clamor to estab- 

 lish first of all a farm school, with a noted practical agri- 



