THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 89 



bandry. A school might work and do 

 much good with these four professors. 

 But a glance shows that it would be better 

 to have six ; and still there would be very 

 important branches of agricultural educa- 

 tion omitted. Now if we should under- 

 take to establish an agricultural school on 

 this phm, it would cost us an outlay at first 

 of little less than $100 000 for lands, build- 

 ings, apparatus, &c, and an annual expen- 

 diture of from $6,000 to $10,000 to pay 

 professors' salaries, cover repairs, &c. 

 The resources of our society are wholly 

 inadequate to meet such a demand. If 

 we cannot get agricultural education at a 

 lower figure than that, we must give it up, 

 and grope awhile longer *in darkness. But 

 we can get it at one-fifth of this expense, 

 by putting a professor of Practical Hus- 

 bandry at the University of the State. 



There is a feature in the system of in- 

 struction at the University, which is pe- 

 culiar to that institution, so far as I know, 

 and which it owes to the liberal views and 

 far-seeing wisdom of its founder. It is 

 this : That there is no regular curriculum 

 of studies beginning with freshman and 

 ending with senior, as in the old colleges. 

 But each professor is the head of an inde- 

 pendent school. A young man at the Uni- 

 versity may study Latin and Greek all the 

 time and nothing else, or Moral Philoso- 

 phy alone, and as long as he pleases. Whe- 

 ther this system is better than the old or 

 not, is a question not under discussion 

 here. This is' evident : that it opens the 

 way for uniting other schools to those al- 

 ready established. Thus a complete med- 

 ical school with three professors, and a law 

 school with two, are already in full and 

 very successful operation in this institu- 

 tion. The law and medical students, 

 while studying their profession, can attend 

 lectures in any of the other schools. It is 

 not a matter of doubt or uncertainty whe- 

 ther a school of agriculture can be grafted 

 on this same noble stock — we have it in 

 black and white, that it can and shall be, 

 if we will it. 



Two years ago a committee was appoint- 

 ed by our society to confer with the prop- 

 er authorities of the two State institutions 

 of learning in Virginia, for the purpose of 

 ascertaining whether it was practicable to 

 establish a Professorship of Agriculture at 

 one or both of them, to be endowed and 

 sustained out of the funds of our society ; 



and what amount of money would be ne- 

 cessary to accomplish the object, if found 

 to be practicable. The committee per- 

 formed the duty assigned to them, and 

 submitted a report to the last meeting of 

 the society, recommending the establish- 

 ment of a Professorship of Practical Hus- 

 bandry at the University of Virginia, and 

 fixing the sum of $20,000 as the amount 

 necessary to endow and sustain such pro- 

 fessorship. The committee state in their 

 report that they received, both from the 

 authorities of the University and of the 

 Military Institute, the most gratifying and 

 satisfactory assurances of a willingness to 

 cooperate with our society in the cause of 

 agricultural education, and a pledge on 

 their part to use every means in their pow- 

 er to effect (he object of the society, if it 

 should be our pleasure to establish a pro- 

 fessorship of agriculture in connection with 

 the institutions under their controul. Ap- 

 pended to the report of the committee are 

 letters from the Rector of the University 

 and the President of the Board of Visitors 

 of the Military Institute to that effect. 

 The committee decided in favour of the 

 University, among other reasons, because 

 the students would not be compelled to 

 enter on any regular curriculum of Col- 

 lege studies there, but might pursue their 

 agricultural studies alone ; and because 

 the authorities of that institution offered 

 land enough for an experimental farm, 

 contiguous to the institution, whenever 

 the wants of the agricultural school should 

 require it. The existence of Law and 

 Medical schools at the University, which 

 might be made available to enlarge the 

 field of agricultural education, may also 

 have influenced the committee in deciding 

 to select the University, rather than the 

 Military Institute. 



The committee also say in their report, 

 that in order to apprise the authorities of 

 the University of the extent of the expec- 

 tations of the friends of agricultural edu- 

 cation in the event of the establishment of 

 a professorship of agriculture at the Uni- 

 versity, they submitted to the Board of 

 Visitors a brief synopsis of ti e subjects 

 which ought to be embraced in a system 

 of agricultural instruction, and indicated 

 to the Board how much of this work could 

 be done by the Professor of Agriculture, 

 and how much would have to be done by 

 Professors in other schools. They express 



