MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

AMHERST, HAMPDEN COUNTY.

HISTORY.

THE Massachusetts School of Agriculture was incorporated in 1856, but its original incorporators failing to secure by private subscription or State appropriation the means to begin operations, the charter was transferred in 1860 to several enterprising citizens of Springfield, who after consultation with the leading agriculturists in the central part of the State, determined to raise $75,000 to open the institution in that city. The breaking out of the war suspended the canvass for subscriptions, and all efforts to establish the school, until 1863, when the Legislature, having accepted the conditions of the National land-grant of 1862, determined after much discussion, to divide the bounty of the government between two independent institutions, one of which should be devoted to the special education of young men in scientific agriculture and horticulture; and the other, (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at Boston,) to instruction in the mechanic arts.

The Massachusetts Agricultural College was accordingly established April 29, 1863-the location, organization, government, and course of study, were left with the trustees, (consisting of fourteen persons, and the Governor, the Secretary of the Board of Agriculture, the Secretary of the Board of Education, and the President of the College,) subject to the approval of the Legislature.

To the College thus established, was given the proceeds of the sale of onetenth of the land-scrip received from the National government, for the purchase of a Farm, and two-thirds of the income of the fund obtained by the sale of the remaining nine-tenths, as an endowment, on condition that the further sum of seventy-five thousand dollars should be secured by valid subscription or otherwise, for the purpose of erecting suitable buildings.

The town of Amherst having pledged the sum, $75,000, for such buildings as were necessary to put the College into operation, and an eligible site, and farm of 383 acres having been secured in that town, at a cost of $41,000, the institution was permanently located there in 1864, and the improvement of the grounds and the erection of suitable buildings commenced. After many untoward hindrances and partial organizations, the buildings were in such state that the College was opened for the reception of students in October, 1867, under the presidency of Col. William S. Clark.

TRUSTEES.

Members ex-officiis.-His Excellency ALEXANDER H. BULLOCK; Hon. JOSEPH WHITE, Secretary of the Board of Education; Hon. CHARLES L. FLINT, Secreretary of Board of Agriculture; WILLIAM S. CLARK, President of the College. Members elected by the Legislature.--MARSHALL P. WILDER, of Norfolk County; CHARLES G. Davis, of Plymouth County; NATHAN DURFEE, of Bristol

County; HENRY COLT, of Berkshire County; CHARLES C. SEWALL, of Norfolk County; PAOLI LATHROP, of Hampshire County; PHINEAS STEDMAN, of Hampden County; ALLEN W. DODGE, of Essex County; GEORGE MARSTON, of Barnstable County; WILLIAM B. WASHBURN, of Franklin County; GEORGE L. WHITING, of Dukes County; D. WALDO LINCOLN, of Worcester County; HENRY F. HILLS, of Hampshire County; of Middlesex County.

WILLIAM S. CLARK, Ph. D., President, and Professor of Botany and Horticulture, and Director of the Botanic Garden; LEVI STOCKBRIDGE, Farm Superintendent, and Instructor in Agriculture; EBENEZER S. SNELL, LL. D., Professor of Mathematics; HENRY H. GOODELL, A. M., Professor of Modern Languages, and Instructor in Gymnastics and Military Tactics.

COURSE OF INSTRUCTION.

FRESHMAN YEAR.

First Term.-Algebra; Human Anatomy and Physiology; Chemical Physics. Second Term.-Geometry; French; Chemistry.

Third Term.-Geometry; French; Botany.

Lectures upon Hygiene, Chemistry, Botany, and Agriculture; and Exercises in Orthography, Elocution, and English Composition, during the year.

SOPHOMORE YEAR.

First Term.-German; Agriculture; Commercial Arithmetic, and Bookkeeping.

Second Term.-German; Trigonometry; Analytical Chemistry.

Third Term.-Mensuration; Surveying; Analytical Chemistry; Zoology; Drawing.

Lectures upon Comparative Anatomy, Diseases of Domestic Animals, Organic Chemistry, and Market Gardening; and Exercises in English Composition, and Declamation, during the year.

JUNIOR YEAR.

First Term.-Physics; French or German; Agricultural Chemistry; Drawing. Second Term.-Physics; Rhetoric; Horticulture.

Third Term.-Astronomy; Systematic Botany; History of the United States. Lectures upon Physics, Mineralogy, the Cultivation of the Vine and Fruit and Forest Trees, and Useful and Injurious Insects; and Exercises in English Composition, and Debate, during the year.

SENIOR YEAR.

First Term.-Intellectual Philosophy; History; Physical Geography. Second Term.-Moral Philosophy; Political Geography; the Civil Polity of Massachusetts and the United States.

Third Term.-Geology; Engineering; Political Economy.

Lectures upon Stock Farming, Architecture, Landscape Gardening, Geology, and English Literature; and Exercises in Original Declamation, and Debate, during the year.

Exercises in Gymnastics, Military Tactics, and the various operations of the Farm and Garden, through the course.

BUILDINGS.

The Trustees, in their report for 1867, give the following account of the buildings already erected:

It has been the design of the Trustees thus far to expend the fund of $75,000, pledged by the town of Amherst for such buildings as were necessary to put the College into operation, and try upon a moderate scale the experiment about which there has been so much discussion, of combining in an educational course, theory and practice,-scientific culture and manual labor. With this object in view they have erected a Dormitory 100×50 feet, and four stories high, with a basement for fuel. This edifice, besides rooms for one professor and forty-six students, contains two recitation rooms, a reading room and library, and two large rooms occupied by the State cabinet of specimens illustrating the natural history and geology of Massachusetts. This edifice, with fixtures for the public rooms, stoves, well, grading and out-buildings, cost $36,280.

The Boarding-house furnishes accommodations for a family, and has a diningroom 50×1> feet, where the students are provided with satisfactory board, at $3 per week. The cost of this building, including furniture, grading, and supplying with water, was $8,180.

The Chemical Library is 57×46 feet, and two stories high, and affords excellent rooms for lectures, practical chemistry, and apparatus. The building, including bell and grading, has cost about $10,360. It has not yet been provided with apparatus or furniture, and is used at present as a gymnasium.

The Botanic Museum is a two-story structure, 45X31 feet, with a deep cellar for storing plants, flower-pots, sand, and other material for winter use in the glass houses adjoining. The lower floor contains the president's office and lecture room, and the upper floor will be provided with cases for the exhibition of fruit models, specimens of seeds, woods, and interesting vegetable products. The cost of this building, including furniture and grading, will be $5,180.

The Durfee Plant houses are an elegant group of glass buildings with curvilinear roofs, covering 5,000 square feet of surface, and heated by hot water. It is divided into five compartments, the temperature and moisture of which are entirely under the control of the superintendent. They are named the dry stove, for succulent plants; the moist stove, for true tropical species; the palmhouse, for larger species of tender trees and shrubs; the camellia house, for such as require comparatively little heat; and the victoria house, for aquatic and air plants. Besides these there are two propagating pits, each 50×12 feet, one of which is supplied with a hot-water tank for heating the sand beds, while in the other they are warmed by the circulation of water from the boilers in iron pipes. An abundant supply of soft water is procured from a reservoir on the hill north of the building, which is heated and aerated in a tank over the potting room and boilers. From the tank it is conducted in iron pipes to all parts of the house, and flows with sufficient force to feed a fountain in the victoria house, and shower all the plants as required. The plan and specifications, grading and foundations for this building, cost about $2,000, and the structure itself, with heating apparatus and water, about $10,000 more, which was generously paid by Dr. Nathan Durfee, of Fall River. When completed it will cover more than 10,000 square feet, and be one of the most tasteful, conveniently arranged, and delightfully located buildings of the kind in the country. The value of such an establishment for experiments in hybridizing, propagating, and cultivating useful and ornamental plants, as well as in teaching horticulture and systematic botany, can hardly be overestimated. By the wise liberality of Messrs. L. M. and H. F. Hills, of Amherst, the College has been provided with a fund of $10,000, the income of which is to be expended in the purchase of such seeds, plants and books as may be needed in this department.

Plans and specifications for a model barn have been procured, and the sum of $7,000 appropriated for its construction. The stone and much of the lumber will be taken from the lands of the College and hauled to the location selected, on the central ridge of the farm, about forty rods south of the dormitory, the present winter. The barn is intended to stand on the western slope of the ridge, and to be 100×50 feet, with posts 28 feet high. The upper, or threshing floor, is to be ten feet above the sills, and entered by a bridge from a wall fourteen feet east of the building. The lower story contains stables, rootroom, granary, and feeding floor, with bay for hay, which is to be thrown down from the upper floor. In the second story is the tool-room and corn-house, and underneath the whole of the main building a cellar for manure. The barn

stands east and west, with an ell on the west end, extending south from the building 100 feet, for a shelter to the stock and for storage. On the east end of the barn is another ell, 30×20 feet, and two stories in height, with horsestable and carriage-room above, and piggery below. The entire structure will hold about 175 tons of hay. Another barn of equal capacity will ultimately be necessary upon the north side of the farm.

With its present buildings, (which will cost $75,000, besides $10,000 given by Dr. Durfee, who has also given $10,000 to meet the annual expenses of the Plant-house,) the College will be able to educate about fifty young men, and with another dormitory building, with public rooms on the first floor, another boarding-house, and two houses for professors, another class of sixty could be accommodated. This will require an expenditure of $50,000.

STUDENT LABOR.

In most seasons of the year, students are required to labor, without pay, for two hours a day, and those who wish it are paid for additional work at the rate of twelve and a half cents per hour, and in special kinds of work at higher

rates.

The Trustees have petitioned the Legislature for an appropriation of $50,000 to furnish additional buildings for said institution, for the following reasons:First.-Massachusetts has accepted from Congress a gift of 252,000 acres of land, and from the town of Amherst and from individuals, the sum of $95,000, and has appropriated from the treasury $20,000, for the express purpose of promoting education in agriculture, and has pledged herself to maintain forever an Agricultural College.

Second. After five years of preparation, the College has been put into successful operation and is filled with students, while numerous applications are being received for admission to the next class.

Third. The course of instruction occupies four years, so that it is necessary to accommodate four classes in order to carry out the plan of organization adopted; but the first class occupies all the rooms of the college. It is evident, therefore, that either a further development of the institution must be stopped, and the number of students be limited to fifty, and the number of classes to one, or additional buildings must be completed before September next.

Fourth. This is not only desirable for the credit of Massachusetts that she may have an Agricultural College worthy of her fame in educational matters, but it is the only true economy. The sum of $275,000 has been invested in the institution, the interest of which at six per cent. is $16,500. If this be devoted to the education of fifty students, they receive $330 as the actual cost of their education. If, on the other hand, the number of students is two hundred, as it should be for the successful working of the plan adopted, they receive annually $87.50 each from the income of the investment.

Fifth. The erection of buildings for the accommodation of students and officers, is the best possible mode of endowing the college, since it increases the number of laborers on the farm and the amount of income received as tuition.

Sixth. The number of students in the four classes should not be less than two hundred, in order to give the college a good standing among similar institutions, and to enable the trustees to secure the services of a thoroughly competent faculty.

Seventh. The college deserves favorable consideration because it is established for the special benefit of the industrial classes, and offers to the young farmers of the Commonwealth an excellent scientific business and professional education at the lowest possible cost.

Eighth. It is believed, if the State will now show faith in the success of the enterprise, and a determination to render the college worthy the honored name it bears, that wealthy individuals will cheerfully contribute to its funds as has been so often and so generously done for the other colleges of the Commonwealth.

NEW YORK STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

CORNELL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA.

PRELIMINARY HISTORY.

THE largest apportionment of the national grant was bestowed upon the Empire State-nine hundred and ninety thousand acres in scrip. The offer was accepted promptly by the legislature, and at first the proceeds were voted (in 1863,) to the endowment, under certain conditions, of the "People's College" at Havana, an institution which had been struggling for several years to maintain its precarious existence. Before recording the final disposition of this munificent grant, it is proper to note several prior stages in the history of scientific industrial education in this great State.

The wise and beneficent labors of Stephen Van Rensselaer, in 1819, in procuring legislative aid "for the encouragement and improvement of agriculture by forming County Societies, and a State Board-in securing at his own expense, in 1820, accurate and minute geological and agricultural surveys, and extensive analyses of various soils in the counties of Albany and Rensselaer-and in 1822-23, the more extensive geological exploration of the strata and rocks on both sides of the Erie canal, by Prof. Amos Eaton-in employing, in the summer of 1824, the same Professor with competent assistants, and sufficient apparatus and specimens, to lecture, with experiments and illustrations, on chemistry, natural philosophy, and natural history, in all the principal villages and towns on or near the route of the Erie canal- and to crown the whole, in establishing, in the fall of 1824, an institution in Troy "to give instruction in the application of science to the common purposes of life," and particularly "to qualify teachers for instructing the sons and daughters of mechanics, in the application of experimental chemistry, philosophy and natural history, to agriculture, domestic economy, and the arts and manufactures,"-these labors and the results mark a new era in the history of American education. The opening of the Scientific School in Troy, on the 5th of November, 1824, (incorporated as the Rensselaer Institute in 1826,) with buildings and professors furnished at his cost for fourteen years, entitle Stephen Van Rensselaer to be considered as the founder of this class of institutions in this country. From this Institute, for thirty years, proceeded more State geologists, principal and assistant engineers on public works, practical chemists, naturalists, and scientific professors, than from all the Colleges in the Union in the same period.

To the practical agriculturists of the State of New York, is the country indebted for the earliest efforts to establish a school of Agriculture. As early as 1837, the efforts of Jesse Buel, through the Cultivator, seconded by Dr. Beekman and others, funds were subscribed, a site selected near Albany, and a plan of organization formed for an institution to be devoted to agricultural edu. cation. But the project failed for the time, to be revived by Dr. Beekman in 1844, and almost realized through the liberality of Mr. John Delafield. But his