520 Report on Agricultural Education. 
lease of ninety-nine years. A charter was obtained in March 
1845, incorporating the governors, proprietors, and donors 
under the title of " The Agricultural College for Teaching the 
Science of Agriculture, and the various Sciences connected 
therewith, and the practical application thereof to the Cultiva- 
tion of the Soil and the Rearing and Management of Stock." 
This sum of 12,000?., however, was soon found to be in- 
adequate to the completion of the College, irrespective of farm 
buildings and other essential adjuncts. . It was, therefore, pro- 
vided that the capital should be increased to 24,000Z. ; but a 
premature extension of the College by the immediate erection of 
some buildings, which it had been originally intended to leave 
over to some future occasion, soon involved the promoters in 
further debt. 
In consequence of no precedent existing in this country as a 
guide to the committee of management, mistakes of various kinds 
were committed from time to time in the early days of the Col- 
lege. Among such mistakes was the amount of the fees first 
fixed for the board and instruction of students, which was placed 
at the ridiculous figure of 30Z. per annum only, a sum which 
scarcely met the demands caused by the keen appetites of the 
students, leaving interest on capital, cost of tuition, &c., entirely 
unprovided for. In 1848 it was doubtful whether the institution 
could be carried on any longer. The bankers' account was over- 
drawn to the amount of 10,000/., and it seemed as if the first 
attempt at agricultural education on a large scale was to become 
an ignominious failure. Under these circumstances Mr. Holland, 
a local landowner and then vice-president of the institution, 
nobly took upon himself the responsibility of the existing debt. 
At subsequent meetings the late Earl Ducie, Earl Bathurst, Mr. 
Sotheron Estcourt, and the late Mr. Langston, joined Mr. Holland ; 
and through the joint exertions of these gentlemen some 30,000/. 
was raised. It now became necessary to apply for a supplemental 
charter, in order to vest the management of the College in these 
gentlemen during the continuance of their liabilities, and to 
give them such security for their advances as the nature of the 
institution admitted of. This further charter was obtained 
in July 1849 ; and the corporation was empowered to obtain 
an additional capital of 20,000/., if required, the guarantors 
also being appointed a committee of management. 
I shall not go through the other difficulties which characterized 
the management of the College in its early days. Suffice it to 
say that they were numerous and almost insurmountable. The 
difficulty of securing suitable teachers was not the least of 
them, though distinguished men were to be found occasionally 
amongst their number. The names of Professor Wilson, who 
