president of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, was to give practical instruction in analytical and applied chemistry, with special reference to agriculture, pharmacy, and metallurgy." This department was discontinued in 1857.

* * *

The Country Gentleman contains an announcement, dated December 23, 1853, by Mr. Nash, of his course in practical and scientific agriculture for "young men not pursuing a full collegiate course. Instruction will be given, through textbooks, lectures, and free conversations on the applications of science to the cultivation and improvement of soils, the preservation and use of manures, the growing and disposal of crops, the care of animals, and generally to whatever relates to the management of a farm." Students may take the whole or a part of this course and may have access to other lectures by the president and professors of Amherst College. "The teacher of agriculture will accompany his class to the lectures on geology, chemistry, philosophy, and natural history, and then at the earliest opportunity will review with them the subject of each lecture in a way to show its practical bearings and to fix it in the memory."

FARMERS' COLLEGE IN OHIO

In 1846 an institution named Farmers' College was organized at College Hill, Ohio, 6 miles from Cincinnati (334). This was an outgrowth of a literary school known as Pleasant Hill Academy, begun in 1833 by Freeman Grant Cary (1810-1888), a cousin of Alice and Phoebe Cary, and a graduate of Miami University, Oxford Ohio, in 1832.

In 1845 a plan was made to enlarge the school by issuing stock for "a building for an institution of learning especially suited to the wants of the agricultural and business community." The building was to be called Farmers' Collegiate Hall of Hamilton County. Over 400 persons, mostly farmers and mechanics, contributed. A charter, granted by the legislature February 23, 1846, created a corporation known as Farmers' College of Hamilton County. "The objects of this association shall be to direct and cultivate the minds of the students in a thorough and scientific course of studies, particularly adapted to agricultural pursuits."

About 72 acres of land adjoining the site of the academy were obtained and on this tract a three-story brick building, 120 by 48 feet, with 27 rooms was erected, costing with its furniture about $13,000. In 1855 the legislature gave the college authority to grant the degrees of A. B. and A. M. John H. Scott, a native of Pennsylvania and graduate of Washington College, who had also studied science under Silliman at Yale College, was professor of chemistry and its application to agriculture and the arts until 1849. Benjamin Harrison, afterwards President of the United States, was a student. in this institution in 1848-1850.

Increasing public interest in agricultural education led the board of trustees in 1853 to resolve to raise $100,000 "to secure a farm and establish an agricultural professorship and department of practical agriculture and horticulture and constitute a building fund." The committee to prepare a plan for subscription reported that "it was

the original design to connect with this institution a farm for scientific and practical experiments in agriculture and horticulture, including the analysis of soils and their adaptation to the various products of the earth. * * A college furnished with ample facilities for applying the principles of science to husbandry and the mechanic arts is indispensable in developing the resources of the country" (334).

President Cary resigned to take charge of the farm department and to raise funds for its support. William Cary gave $10,000 for this department and a Cary professorship of practical agriculture was established in his honor.

The course as outlined in the catalogue included field lectures, the study of textbooks and essays on agriculture and horticulture during four years, general and agricultural chemistry, entomology, mineralogy, geology, natural philosophy, physiology, English, mathematics, history, political economy, mental and moral philosophy, drawing, etc.

A monthly journal, called The Cincinnatus, was published at the college, beginning January 1, 1856 (332). It contained articles on a great variety of agricultural subjects, including agricultural education, accounts of experiments, agricultural production and economics, meteorology, etc. It continued through five volumes. In the first volume it is stated that 100 acres of land were purchased " for a model and experimental farm," a botanic garden of 20 acres was being laid out, with vegetables, fruits, shrubs, and forest trees of many varieties-the whole farm to constitute "a grand laboratory." Small lots for variety tests were to be made on the farm. The building, called Polytechnic Hall, was completed in the fall of 1856 and dedicated with appropriate ceremonies, including an address by Mr. Cary on industrial university education-its mission. This building contained rooms for professors of chemistry, botany, and vegetable physiology, and theoretical and practical agriculture, a chemical laboratory, a shop with forge, and other mechanical apparatus, etc. "Every student is to be an operator."

The college as a whole grew in popularity and in 1856 had 330 students. But its funds were not sufficient to maintain it on the scale on which it was being operated, and as the shadow of the Civil War approached it was difficult to secure adequate financial support. Two memorials were sent to Congress asking for grants of land for the college, but without avail. An effort to have this college made the beneficiary of the land grant act of 1862 also failed. The professorship of agriculture was nominally maintained until 1880, but long before that the farm department had disappeared and the farm itself had been sold. In 1884 the institution became Belmont College and this was merged into the Ohio Military Institute in 1890.

THE MOVEMENT TOWARD PUBLIC SUPPORT OF AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES

While the teaching of agriculture in purely private institutions was being attempted with small success, friends of agricultural education began to look forward to State aid for such instruction, and

in a few States movements were begun which were to lead up to the establishment of State agricultural colleges and their endowment under the national land grant act of 1862.

NEW YORK

There is little doubt that after the attempt of Doctor Mitchill to teach science in its relations to agriculture at Columbia College in 1792 the group of influential men who were prominent in the early agricultural societies in New York discussed from time to time the possibility of doing something for agriculture in colleges or through professorships connected with the societies or other institutions. This came to the surface as already stated in Governor Clinton's message of 1818 favoring a State board of agriculture, wherein he also suggested that a professorship of agriculture might well be connected with the board or attached to the university."

66

DE WITT'S PLAN FOR AN AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

The following year his cousin, Simeon De Witt, published anonymously at Albany a pamphlet of 42 pages, entitled " Considerations on the Necessity of Establishing an Agricultural College and Having More of the Children of Wealthy Citizens Educated for the Profession of Farming" (258). He had in 1799 publicly advocated "a school of practical instruction in the business of husbandry," with which there should be experiments and instruction in the science of agriculture (230).

He now attempted to show that farming is not only honorable, but may be and often is profitable, and that even its difficulties and hardships are much better for men to contend with than a life of idleness; that in foreign countries gentlemen are in many cases owners of large estates, in the management of which they often endeavor to improve agriculture by experiments, the results of which they disseminate to their tenants and through societies or boards of agriculture.

The absence of such a class in this country has led the small, but independent, farmers to follow traditional methods and thus to prevent improvements in agriculture. The agricultural societies are doing something to remedy this situation. "The institution now proposed will not be their rival but rather a cooperator. * * * It is intended not so much to give instruction to farmers as to make farmers from other classes of society."

It may be called an agricultural school, academy, or college, no matter which; but if any importance is to be attached to names, I would give it the most respectable, and call it the Agricultural College of the State of New York.

Its primary object should be to teach the theory and practice of agriculture, with such branches of other sciences as may be serviceable to them, its secondary, to make improvements (258).

On the faculty should be a "professor of practical agriculture acquainted with both theory and practice and capable of making experiments. He will have direction of the labor of the students in the field."

Instead of giving formal lectures, this professor, who must constantly attend his classes while thus engaged, will, during the progress of their work, explain to them the best manner in which everything is to be done, the reason of it,

and the errors that are or may be committed in it; on all which the students will be required to make notes and comments at their hours of relaxation and undergo examinations at stated times (258).

There should be a farm of considerable extent and variety of soil and it should" be made not only instructive, but, if possible, profitable." A workshop for the repair of implements by the students and for a collection of " models of all the best implements of husbandry " should be provided. Account books should be kept in detail of all the farm transactions and the professors should lecture on this subject.

De Witt's plan for an agricultural college was given considerable publicity in various ways in New York and other States and undoubtedly laid a somewhat definite basis for consideration of this subject in legislatures and elsewhere. It had, however, one unfortunate result in giving credence to the idea, often urged by opponents of public aid to agricultural colleges, that they were to be institutions for the rich and therefore not worthy of support from public funds.

ELKANAH WATSON'S PLAN FOR A PATTERN FARM

Pro

In 1819 Elkanah Watson (see p. 12) issued a plan for a pattern. farm of from 100 to 200 acres under the board of agriculture with a professor of agriculture to carry on experiments on crops, trees. implements, architectural plans, animals, manures, "and all that relates to chemistry, horticulture, botany, and mineralogy." vision was to be made for the education there annually of 20 young men at the expense of the agricultural fund. These students were to be selected by the presidents of the agricultural societies. There were to be classes on the theory and practice of agriculture and student labor at least three hours a day. The next year these students should teach in academies or schools under direction of the county societies and be provided with cheap books on the first elements of agriculture and chemistry. Watson, however, states that he did not expect this plan to be adopted for some time to come.

JESSE BUEL'S PLAN FOR AN AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL

In 1823 there appeared in the New York Assembly an agricultural leader who was to keep up for about 15 years a persistent campaign for the establishment of an agricultural college. This was Jesse Buel (1778-1839), a native of Coventry, Conn., who had learned the printer's trade at Rutland, Vt., and thereafter published papers in Troy, Poughkeepsie, and Kingston, N. Y. (244). In 1813 he established the Argus at Albany, which for many years was an influential journal, and was its editor until 1821. During this period he was also State printer. While a resident of Kingston he was judge of the court of common pleas. After retiring from the Argus he settled on a small farm near Albany, which he greatly improved through experiments in agriculture and horticulture.

As a member of the committee on agriculture of the New York Assembly in 1823 Buel brought in a report favoring an agricultural school (304).

The curriculum should cover every branch of science relating to agriculture and every department of practical husbandry. Tuition should be low. Appropriations should be loans rather than donations. It is stated that Hon. Stephen

Van Rensselaer has offered land. The school will supersede the board of agriculture and might have the $10,000 now annually given to the county agricultural societies. For its support a tax on bank stock is suggested. On the State appropriations to colleges and schools an agricultural school should be included. A bill to establish the school accompanies the report.

In a letter to W. M. Barton, vice president of the Agricultural Society of the Valley of Virginia, December 6, 1823, Buel referred to this report and stated that he considered the plan of the Albemarle Society for a professorship of agriculture at the University of Virginia defective because "it makes agriculture an auxiliary study," whereas "it ought to be the principal, and botany, chemistry, literature, etc., should be subservient to this great study." "The pupil should go to it with the express view of learning to be a farmer.

In 1825 the New York Committee on Agriculture reported that "it is in some measure indispensable to establish an experimental farm in connection with an agricultural seminary" but "while the committee indulge a belief that such a system will eventually be established to its full extent, yet they apprehend that public sentiment is not yet sufficiently mature to embrace the plan."

In 1826 James Tallmadge, then lieutenant governor of New York, in the report of a committee to inquire into the condition of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City," urged that it was not sufficient that the sciences connected with agriculture and the mechanic arts should be diligently studied and correctly understood by a few votaries in our literary institutions." He therefore advocated lectures on these subjects in public schools and colleges.

NEW YORK STATE AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL

In 1832 at the first meeting of the new State agricultural society a committee was appointed to report on a plan for an agricultural school. Pending this report the Albany Argus began a series of articles, undoubtedly by Jesse Buel, to call public attention to this

matter.

On February 14, 1833, the committee reported a plan for a school, with an estimate of expense on the basis of an attendance of 200 students (3). A farm of 400 acres, with buildings and equipment, would cost $57,550 and the annual expense for instruction and board would be $23,400, of which only $5,100 was for salaries of officers and teachers. With board and tuition at $150 and proceeds of sale of farm produce the annual receipts would be $34,000.

The committee proposed a bill to be introduced in the legislature asking for authorization to issue stock certificates to the amount of $100,000, with interest at 5 per cent, to be sold at auction. Three commissioners were to purchase the farm and erect buildings to accommodate 200 students, who at entrance must be at least 14 years old.

The society presented this plan and bill to both houses of the legislature, through a committee of which Buel was a member. Favorable reports on the project were made, but the legislature took no action. Then in March, 1834, Buel established the monthly journal called The Cultivator, very largely as a medium of propaganda for the school. For a considerable period this paper was issued in the name