86 
NEW-YORK PROPOSED AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 
of streets, sinks, gutters — in fact, every manure 
that can be got on to land, is valuable. 
Occasional pasturing, too, for a full season, is 
highly advantageous to mowing grounds. Grass 
is sometimes thrown out by frost, and stands in 
tussocks, apart, leaving open spaces of ground 
between. The tread of cattle or sheep com- 
pacts the soil, and nipping the young grass 
spreads the roots, and prevents their exhaustion, 
by ripening the stalk and maturing the seed ; 
and every grazier or dairyman, will attest the 
superior value of old pastures, in giving flesh to 
stock, and quality to butter and cheese; and to 
the superior excellence of the hay from old 
meadows, (when in good condition,) for the con- 
sumption of all kinds of cattle, horses, or sheep. 
This superiority arises from its fineness, and its 
richness; induced by its numerous roots, and mul- 
tiplied leaves, branches, and stems. 
And so long as we have numerous instances 
of meadows which have remained unbroken for 
a period much beyond the life of man, it may 
be well to exhaust all other plans of restoration, 
before a good bottom is broken up, for the only 
xeason that it is run out, hide bound, or mossy. 
My own best pastures have never been plowed, 
and are yearly growing better ; and the same 
remark will apply to a part of my meadows. 
Lewis F. Allen. 
Black Rock, N. Y., January, 1850. 
NEW-YORK PROPOSED AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 
We have received the report of the commis- 
sioners appointed to mature and report a plan 
for an Agricultural College and Experimental 
Farm. With many of the features of this report, 
we agree. We wish to see a beginning made 
in the great business of educating the farmer 
for his profession. We will approve of the 
undertaking, in almost any shape it will be 
likely to assume, because it is an undertaking. 
At the same time, we think the plan should be 
one most likely to lead at once to beneficial, 
practical, and even popular results. A failure 
in the first attempt within the United States, to 
establish an agricultural college, would throw 
a slur upon agricultural education, which might 
require another half century to overcome. 
Many of our farmers can hardly forgive the 
application of any scientific principles to their 
occupation. With how much less favor would 
they view an attempt to make science, and 
intelligible, well-established principles, its 
basis ? A slight mistake would jostle the whole 
fabric about our ears ; and no one would be so 
ready to lend a helping hand to such a conclu- 
sion, as those for whose benefit itwas especially 
designed. We regret to be forced to this asser- 
tion; but it is, nevertheless, most lamentably 
true. We would not, of course, be understood 
as including a single one of our agricultural 
readers among this number, as the very fact 
of perusing such works, is prima-facie evidence 
of their readiness to be enlightened. But after 
deducting the 15,000 or 20,000 of such there may 
possibly be within this state, there are enough 
left among the remaining 200,000 to prove our 
as.se rtion. 
We ask, then, in this proposed institution, for 
a well-considered, judicious, and efficient organ- 
isation. No petty plans nor petty appropria- 
tions are worthy this great design. A grant of 
$200,000 of six-per-cent. state stocks, is the 
least sum that should be asked, the income 
of which should be annually applied for the 
current expenses of the college, while $50,000 
additional should be expended in a farm of 
moderate size, amply provided with appropriate 
and economical buildings, (after such models as 
the young farmers can hope to build for them- 
selves, from their own future earnings,) chemical, 
and other apparatus, a well-selected and exten- 
sive library, (containing numerous duplicates of 
all the best agricultural periodicals and standard 
works,) extensive specimen collections of such 
soils, minerals, insects, anatomical and surgical 
preparations of improved domestic animals, as 
will tend to elucidate the whole subject of the 
farmer's and breeder's business, and compel them 
to understand it. Every insect and worm, either 
beneficial or injurious to vegetation, should be 
shown, in every stage of their existence. And 
there should be accurate and extensive plates, 
more fully illustrative of form, color, and appear- 
ance, coupled with reliable and readable works 
on the subject, so that a graduate should have 
the stolidity of a beast himself, who should fail 
to understand and appreciate the difference 
between a scrub, or dunghill, and a well-bred, 
useful animal. Different varieties of wool 
should be shown, and their exact character, 
merits, and value decided ; and this information 
should be a living, progressive thing, not made 
up for once and abandoned, or rather embalmed 
for perpetual preservation or slow decay ; but 
the spirit displa3^ed in its commencement, should 
be ever ready to incorporate the advancements 
and improvements of the day. 
The plan suggested by the commissioners, 
of extending to a limited few a favored position 
in the college, we do not approve. Let admis- 
sion, on equal terms, be granted both to old and 
young. Let this fountain of knowledge be pro- 
vided for all, and so provided, that it will attract 
all, whose circumstances will admit of attend- 
ance. Then let all come and be filled with 
practical, reliable information, and a full and 
confiding belief in there being something to 
learn, beyond what has been taught them on 
their old home lot, or in their father's cowyard. 
We can readily conceive of a college so 
appointed and managed, that the only trouble 
would be, to repress the zeal and ambition to 
enter it ; not the dull, inanimate, namby-pamby, 
still-born affair, that would excite the derision 
of the ignorant, and the pity of the enlightened. 
It should be so attractive, and so manifestly 
utilitarian and practical, that the veriest clod- 
hopper that consults his two-penny almanac for 
the forthcoming weather, or the moon for plant- 
ing his seed, should go home to his miserably 
tilled acres, ashamed of his ignorance and folly, 
and only ambitious that his sons might receive 
those benefits from the institution, which this 
comparatively benighted age had denied him. 
But to carry out our views, those of the com- 
