AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. 
409 
Candidates for admission to the preparatory class must be 
at least fourteen years of age, and sustain a satisfactory exami¬ 
nation in the necessary branches of an elementary education. 
The preparatory term of study is one year; the collegiate term, 
four years. 
The number of professors is seven; the departments of 
instruction as follows: mathematics and civil engineering; 
English literature; general, analytical, and agricultural chem¬ 
istry ; botany ; geology and mineralogy; zoology, general and 
descriptive; entomology ; animal and vegetable physiology; 
theory and practice of agriculture ; theory and practice of 
horticulture. 
The means of illustration independent of the farm, of 
which three hundred acres are under cultivation, and of the 
orchards, gardens etc., include a chemical laboratory; the phil¬ 
osophical and mathematical apparatus usually found in our 
colleges; collections of animals, minerals, plants and vegetable 
productions, and a library. 
The degree of bachelor of science is conferred upon stu¬ 
dents who satisfactorily complete the full course of study, and 
the degree of master of science upon graduates of three years’ 
standing who give evidence of having been been engaged, 
during that period, in scientific studies. 
Following the example of Michigan, the states of New 
York, Maryland and Pennsylvania successively undertook, and 
* early completed the establishment of similar institutions; 
Pennsylvania, in particular, making large appropriations of 
money towards this object. 
i 
But it was soon found that the expense of founding and 
properly endowing valuable colleges of agriculture must nec¬ 
essarily be greater than the individual states—especially the 
newer states—were able to meet; and so, after due agitation of 
the question of national aid, running through a period of several 
years and engaging the earnest efforts of a great number of 
the agricultural, educational, and public men of the country, 
on the second of July 1862—while the nation was still in the 
darkest hour of its struggle with the rebellion—the act of 
