1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



25 



such was the case throughout this part of the 

 valley, — so that the expenses were in excess of 

 the receipts ; but he asserts that it has, on an 

 average, more than paid expenses, and helped 

 support the college with wliich it is connected. 

 In relation to the remark that the cultivation 

 of the college farm was decidedly inferior to 

 that of fanns in the neighborhood, the writer 

 says : — 



I cannot deny that the manner in which the 

 farm has been carried on was not creditable, 

 and that it could not be compared favorably 

 with other farms in the neighborhood. But 

 this has been the result, in a great measure, of 

 the unreasonable sy stein according to which it 

 was worked by the forced, uncompensated labor 

 of the students. The attemjit was made here 

 that has been made many times before, to give 

 boys as good an education as in other institu- 

 tions of the kind, and at the same time to make 

 them devote a no inconsiderable portion of 

 their working hours to hard work, and very 

 naturally both the education and the work were 

 imperfect. The attempt has failed of success 

 here, as it has failed everywhere. Hereafter 

 the farm will be worked by skilled hired labor, 

 and, we trust, in such a manner that we shall 

 not be required to apologize for its appearance. 



The Country Gentleman also furnishes the 

 following abstract of a pamphlet giving the 

 particulars of the plans and measures lately 

 approved by the trustees. 



1. The repeal of the rule requiring every 

 student to work three hours daily on the faiin. 

 This rule, it is stated, has "proved uniformly 

 injurious to the financial and educational inter- 

 ests of the college." Students desiring to do 

 so, however, will be permitted to perform such 

 labor as may be allotted to them, receiving 

 compensation therefor, in part payment of their 

 expenses for tuition, &c. 



2. The college will comprise three courses 

 of instruction — a course of General Science, a 

 course of Agriculture, and a course of Litera- 

 ture. Listruction in Agriculture will be given 

 under the charge of a Professor of Agriculture, 

 "by means of books and lectures in the class- 

 room, numerous experiments on the fann, and 

 agricultural excursions throughout the coun- 

 try." Students will assist in the work con- 

 nected with the experiments. ' 'For the benefit 

 of the farming community, an Agricultural 

 Journal, under the editorship of the College 

 Faculty, will be established in the course of 

 the ensuing year. In the journal, will be pub- 

 lished the experiments made at this college, 

 and at other places in the United States and in 

 Europe, with other matter of interest to agii- 

 culturists." 



These and other changes, with the details 

 involved, having been adopted by the Trustees, 

 were submitted at the annual meeting of Dele- 



gates from the different parts of the State, on 

 the 5th of September last. At this meeting, 

 resolutions were passed approving the action 

 of the Trustees, and recommending them to 

 apply to the Legislature at its next session, 

 "lor the establishment of two additional exper- 

 imental and model farms East and West, in 

 Peimsylvania, upon lands of diversified qual- 

 ity," on the ground that the present college 

 farm "is not adapted for scientific experiments 

 sufiiciently varied to benefit agriculture in parts 

 of the State differing widely in soil and cli- 

 mate." It was also voted that the proposed 

 Agricultural Journal, under the editorship of 

 the College Faculty, is "an essential means" 

 of usefulness among the people of the State. 



We submit the foregoing abstract of this col- 

 lege prospectus, "without comment, other than 

 to express our regret at what seem to us to be 

 the impracticable features it contains. That 

 an institution which, justly or unjustly, has been 

 open to criticism for its management of a single 

 farm, should undertake to carry on three at the 

 same time and at widely distant points, strikes 

 us as equally promising with the second and 

 associated idea — that the College Faculty, who 

 have hitherto had their hands perhaps somewhat 

 over-full with the instruction of their students 

 only, should endeavor to instruct the people of 

 the whole State, by going into the business of 

 agricultural editors and publishers." 



VERMONT AGRICULTITBAL COLLEGE. 



We are indebted to Henry Clark, Esq., Sec- 

 retary of the Senate, and to Mr. I. W. San- 

 born, for valuable legislatiA'e and other State 

 documents. From the latter gentleman we 

 have just received a copy of "The First Annu- 

 al Report of the University of Vei-mont and 

 State Agi'icultural College." The corporation 

 of the University of Vermont, an old institution 

 at Burlington, and the corporation of the Ag- 

 ricultural College were united in one body cor- 

 porate, last November. In August, the oflS- 

 cers of instruction and government were or- 

 ganized as follows : 



James B. Angell, President; Joseph Tor- 

 rey, Professor of Moral and Intellectual Phi- 

 losophy ; McKendree Petty, Professor of Math- 

 ematics ; Leonard Marsh, Professor of Vege- 

 table and Animal Physiology ; Matthew Henrj' 

 Buckham, Professor of the Greek Language 

 and Literature, and Professor ^ro tern of Eng- 

 lish Literature ; Alpheus Benning Crosby, Pro- 

 fessor of the Principles and Practice of Surge- 

 ry ; John Ordronaux, Professor of Physiology 



