2 
THE  COLLEGE  OF  HAWAII:  ITS  WORK  AND  OUTLOOK . 
By  John  W.  Gilmore. 
To  those  of  us  who  have  been  more  or  less  intimately  asso- 
ciated with  the  establishment  of  the  College,  a review  of  the 
process  by  which  it  came  into  being,  and  the  foundations  upon 
which  it  rests  may  seem  superfluous,  but  for  the  sake  of  those 
who  may  not  be  familiar  with  these  things,  I may  be  permit- 
ted to  refer  briefly  to  the  history  of  the  agitation  for  colleges 
to  foster  the  study  of  and  instruction  in  common  things. 
The  College  of  Hawaii  falls  in  chronological  order  as  sixty- 
sixth  of  the  institutes  established  by  the  Land  Grant  Act  of 
T862.  This  act,  which  no  doubt  is  the  greatest  land  mark  in 
the  history  of  education  in  any  land  or  in  any  age  was  not  the 
result  of  a single  legislature.  Agitation  for  instruction  in  the 
practical  activities  of  life  began  with  the  first  administration  of 
Washington.  As  the  smoke  of  the  Revolution  cleared  away 
the  nation  began  to  feel  for  its  implements  of  industry  and 
progress  and  began  to  use  them  with  efficiency  and  intelli- 
gence. Levoisier’s  discoveries  had  awakened  an  interest  in 
the  relations  of  chemistry  to  crop  production,  and  people  were 
beginning  to  see  that  even  the  knowledge  of  that  day  had 
application  to  the  industries.  Washington,  in  his  far-sighted 
wisdom,  advocated  in  his  first  message  to  Congress  (Jan.  8, 
1790)  attention  to  the  “advancement  of  agriculture,  commerce 
and  manufactures  by  all  proper  means”  and  he  left  it  to  the 
deliberations  of  Congress  whether  this  should  be  done  by  the 
agency  of  a national  university  or  by  other  expedients.  Mean- 
time agricultural  societies  had  been  established  and  they  were 
promoting  the  interests  of  agriculture  as  best  they  could.  The 
Agriculture  Societies  led  to  fairs  and  exhibitions  and  these  in 
turn  led  to  the  importation  of  pure  blooded  animals  and  bet- 
ter plants.  It  is  interesting  to  note  in  this  connection  that 
practically  all  our  crops  and  domestic  animals  save  the  tur- 
key and  corn,  pumpkins  and  tomatoes  have  been  imported. 
The  demand  for  a scientific  and  technical  education  grew 
and  the  importance  of  adding  the  impetus  of  scholarship  and 
scientific  methods  to  the  common  affairs  of  life  was  magnified. 
Columbia  College  in  New  York  appointed  in  1792  Samuel  L, 
Mitchell,  Professor  of  Natural  History,  Chemistry  and  Agri- 
culture. This  seems  to  be  about  the  first  professorship  in  any- 
thing pertaining  to  agriculture,  and  instead  of  occupying  a 
chair  in  one  subject,  or  a division  of  one  subject,  as  is  now 
most  often  the  case,  he  occupied  a whole  bench.  It  was  not 
until  about  1825,  however,  that  a private  agricultural  college 
or  school  was  established  in  Columbia  County,  New  York. 
This  was  a time  of  much  agitation  for  manual  training  and 
