ADDRESSES 281 



From this time on we find the Board taking the most 

 active interest in the establishment of the College, provid- 

 ing in every possible way for its welfare, and seeking to 

 enter into a closer and more intimate union. We can do 

 little more than briefly enumerate these continued expres- 

 sions of its good-will. 



We find it in 1866 the author of an act constituting the 

 president of the College a member ex officio of the Board; 

 and further providing that it should be constituted into a 

 Board of Overseers over the College, but without powers 

 to control the action of its trustees or to negative their 

 powers and duties. In this same act the Board was 

 authorized to locate its cabinet and library at the College, 

 and to hold its stated meetings there. 



We next find it in 1867 urging upon the agricultural 

 societies to establish and maintain at least one scholarship 

 at the College. As a result of this effort, we find in 1869 

 eighteen of these societies supporting a scholarship, while 

 the Massachusetts held itself responsible for three and the 

 Essex and the Plymouth each two. At this same time it 

 advocated the proposal that each agricultural society should 

 set aside one sixth of the monies granted to it by the State 

 as a fund towards the support of a professor at the College, 

 whose duty it should be to carry out such experiments as 

 the Board might from time to time direct. A circular was 

 sent out to each of the thirty agricultural societies, asking 

 whether it would consent to such setting aside of one sixth 

 of its stated income. This proposition, however, failed to 

 go into effect; and a resolution was then adopted stating 

 that it was desirable that the secretary of the Board should 

 be located at the College and become a professor, performing 



