No. 216.] 511 



the whole state participate in the benefits produced by the Institu- 

 tion? Would not the graduates be so many teachers, by precept and 

 example, of the planters throughout the general domain? Is not this 

 college, then, for the " many?" How can any committee twist it 

 into a monopoly for the " few?" Perhaps they call the sun a mo- 

 nopoly of light? How can the school be " limited in a great de- 

 gree," or in any degree at all, " to the circle of the opulent?" No! 

 no! This school and this farm show upon their faces that they will 

 form a great orb of scientific light and heat, in which every county 

 will bask, the entire state exalt its intelligence, and even the whole 

 Union feel a'new impulse towards the acquisition of agricultural i»- 

 formation. 



But the committee propose a plan of their own. What is it? 

 They would " encourage the study of agriculture in the Normal 

 School and in the Academies and local institutions which are al- 

 ready established and endowed in all parts of the state: we would 

 also encourage its study in our Common Schools." To this it may 

 be replied — the Normal School, Academies, local institutions and 

 Common Schools will have enough to do, if they teach those things 

 well which have been already entrusted to them. The committee 

 are, it seems, perfectly aware of the necessity of practice with theory, 

 and that such a necessity is the great and unanswerable argument in 

 favor of the School and Farm proposed. How would the committe« 

 provide for "practice" in their plan? They would have the pupils, 

 spend the summers upon the farm at home, and under the care of 

 the father or some experienced farmer, where they may put in prac- 

 tice those principles of agricultural chemistry which have been 

 taught. Now, would this be a simultaneous combination of prac- 

 tice with theory? This is what we want. We propose a College 

 and Farm combined, where the students c$n see the true principles 

 of agricultural science, as they appear in the books, or are uttered 

 by the professor, growing up visibly in the grain, the tree, the flower 

 and the animal. They can daily test the truth of what they daily 

 read or hear, by the torch of nature. She neither prints nor speaks 

 falsely — she is the voice of God. 



We may incidentally mention the good effects that must follow the 

 emulation among several hundred students reading, and listening, 

 and working together. The plan of the committee entirely waives 

 this honorable rivalry; for the father and farmer, if they permitted 

 the son and student to use their farms for application or experiment, 

 would let him have it " all his own way." 



