3 
the  school  was  equipped  with  a farm  where  the  students  could 
support  themselves  by  manual  iabor  while  pursuing  their 
studies. 
The  first  appropriations  by  the  State  for  the  teaching  of 
agriculture  was  that  of  a sum  of  $4,000,  voted  by  the  N,ew 
York  legislature  for  Ovid  Academy  in  Seneca  County.  This 
school,  however,  failed  in  its  operation.  The  first  Agricultural 
College  to  be  established  and  put  in  operation  was  that  of  the 
State  of  Michigan.  The  constitution  of  that  State,  adopted 
in  1850,  says,  “The  legislature  shall  encourage  the  promotion 
of  intellectual,  scientific  and  agricultural  improvement;  and 
shall,  as  soon  as  practicable,  provide  for  the  establishment  of 
an  agricultural  school.” 
The  Act  establishing  the  Michigan  Agricultural  College  was 
passed  Feb.  12,  1855,  and  the  college  was  opened  for  work  in 
May,  1857.  The  Maryland  Agricultural  College  was  the  next 
to  come  into  action  in  1859,  and  shortly  afterwards  in  the 
winter  of  the  same  year,  the  Pennsylvania  State  College  was 
established. 
As  a counter  part  in  the  educational  needs  of  the  time, 
scientific  schools  were  established  at  Yale  and  Harvard  be- 
tween 1840  and  1850 — the  Lawrence  Scientific  School  at  Har- 
vard in  1846  and  the  Sheffield  Scientific  School  at  Yale  about 
the  same  time.  The  Lawrence  Scientific  School  was  estab- 
lished particularly  for  the  purposes  of  instruction  in  the 
Mechanic  Arts  and  the  application  of  chemistry  to  manu- 
facture. 
The  rise  of  the  College  of  Agriculture  and  Mechanic  Arts 
brings  up  an  interesting  contrast  between  our  estimate  of 
objects  fit  for  study  now  and  of  former  times.  The  time  was 
when  men  busied  themselves  with  studies  and  speculations 
concerning  the  universe,  alchemy,  astrology  and  sooth  say- 
ing were  fields  of  mental  activities.  Afterwards  the  stars  were 
seen  in  motion  and  parallax  and  astronomy  was  born.  Lin- 
neus  found  that  plants  and  animals  differed  and  at  the  same 
time  had  certain  traits  in  common,  then  biology  came  into 
being.  Speculation  grew  up  respecting  the  shape,  size  and 
position  of  the  earth  and  the  continents  of  North  and  South 
America  were  discovered.  When  Davy  discovered  the  circu- 
lation of  the  blood  most  men  admitted  that  the  “greatest  study 
for  mankind  is  man,”  then  came  the  university.  But  the  pro- 
genitor of  man  is  the  son  and  the  daughter,  and  this  is  the 
impulse  of  the  public  schools.  We  are  now  on  the  ground  and 
people  are  recognizing  one  another  and  the  things  about  them. 
This  brief  history  has  been  entered  into  in  order  to  show 
that  the  time  was  ripe  for  action  by  the  Federal  Congress, 
when  Senator  Justin  S.  Morril  of  Vermont  began  his  agita- 
tions in  the  Buchanan  administration  in  1857.  His  first  at- 
tempt to  get  the  need  for  collegiate  instruction  in  agriculture 
