412 
STATE AGEICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 
school in a new place, with munificent endowments otherwise 
unavailable, then the answer may be in the affirmative; but in 
the case of any state possessing any such suitable institution 
the answer should be emphatically negative, for the great 
reason of economy, if for none other. The college of “ agri¬ 
culture and the mechanic arts ” necessarily covers a wide field, 
needing vast suras of money for its equipment; and scarcely 
any of our states are at present so rich in means that they can 
afford to disregard enconomical considerations. There is but 
little danger of any school of learning becoming more wealthy 
than is desirable, while, on the other hand, a stinted, crippled, 
and sickly institution had better not have existed at all. 
The third question implies a recognition of the economy of 
association, but betrays a fear of too great intimacy—fear 
largely founded on ancient prejudice of class, which in Amer¬ 
ica, ast of all places on earth, should be allowed to take root, 
but also, to sonie extent, based on a misapprehension of what 
are the requisites of an agricultural school. If prejudice does 
exist between labor and learning, there is no reason why science 
and letters should not dwell peacefully together under the 
same generous roof. 
If it be objected to the incorporation of the school of agri¬ 
culture with a literary school, first, that a contiguous model 
farm would be impracticable in any given case, then I would 
say a model farm is not only not essentia], but, so far as I 
have been able to determine, not half so valuable as we have 
been wont to suppose. If means were unlimited, there could 
be no harm in making a truly model estate, with its numerous 
establishments all complete—unless it should have the effect 
to make two-thirds of the pupils blindly, often absurdly, 
attempt to follow it in their own future operations—but in 
most cases it would be better to employ the extra means upon 
the school itself and on the experimental farm than in vain 
endeavors to make a pattern 'capable of fitting every neigh¬ 
borhood in the state. The teaching of principles which are of 
universal application and the determination of principles by 
investigation and experiment,'! these are pre-eminently the 
mission of the agricultural college. 
