fication or addition to said building, not making said building cost more than the cost of said Clark Seminary provided said Clark Seminary were built of Brick.

And the parties of the first part further agree to and with the party of the Second part that on receiving from subscription of stock the whole costs of constructing and building said Seminary and the said lot of eight acres upon which the same is constructed, they will convey by deed in fee to said Stockholders or trustees, by them to be selected, the said Seminary and the land upon which it is situated. That they will build and construct a good substantial and suitable wood fence enclosing so much of said plat of eight acres as said building Committee shall decide. It is further agreed that no lots shall represent voting stock until a bonafide sale of said lots on the terms aforesaid shall be made

In testimony whereof the said parties have hereto set their hands and seals

Jonathan C. Stoughton

John E. Babcock

George Harvey

Joseph W. Sims, Jr

James S. Wright

Wm. Park

C. F. Columbia

DOCUMENT NUMBER 11

EXTRACT FROM CHAMPAIGN COUNTY DEMOCRAT, Urbana, Jan. 26th, 1861

A MEMORIAL

To your honorable body the General Assembly of the State of Ill.

We, your petitioners, of Champaign County, and State aforesaid in view of the rising importance of the agricultural interests of our state, as well as nation, and the necessity of investing that interest with intelligence, respectability, and the efficiency that science in its present stage of advancement can now endow it, do offer the following reasons, and urge through them the necessity that some provision be made during the present term of the Legislature, for a Department of Agricultural Education, under the patronage of the State, and that the same may be located in a portion of the State where educational facilities are not already supplied. There are two obvious necessities for such a branch of education: one to give a higher direction to the laboring classes of our State, and an emulation more commendable than mechanical imitation such as the laborer acquires by habitual drill; and, secondly, to make experimental science subserve the purposes of public economy. For the first object we deem it necessary not only to maintain separate chairs of instruction on the Natural Sciences, but to create and encourage, also, in association with those studies, ample demonstration in the same, from collections of the various products of the various soils, both of natural and cultivated growth; also the geological specimens of the earth's strata, the Botany of the earth, her mineralogy, conkology, and chemical transformations; of ornithology, zoology, comparative anatomy and the collation of mechanical improvements, and intellectual productions of American genius. In a word, we hold that an Agricultural Bureau, under the State jurisdiction and support, should be thus associated with such a seminary, thereby bringing the young and inquiring mind directly in contact with the objects of his pursuit. We hold that it is the youth of

our country who can be most benefited by such a state department, rather than the more aged and opulent, who by their means alone can gain access to such valuable departments. Thus far they are secluded under the umbrage of the State, and national capital, precluding the youthful and indigent by the necessary formality of official parade.

Everything in science and art, which has been developed by genius and industry, is by the force of irresistible progress dedicated to the ambition of youth. For the more especial promotion of the second object mentioned above, to wit, to make science subserve the purpose of public economy, we recommend that there be a sufficiency of land of good quality attached to such a seminary, that will facilitate experimental results in such practical departments, as transplanting, inoculating, grafting, hybridizing, mulching, draining, substitution of foreign for home products, adapting certain crops to certain soils, and anticipating the results of cropping and rotation from a knowledge of the food of plants and grains-what is consumed in abundance by one crop can be noted, and a successive crop so selected that shall not depend for perfection on the same staple. This depends on a knowledge of the staples of vegetables consumption-an investigation in the loose customs of inbreeding amongst our products is of equal importance, endangering thereby the perfection of the fruit or grain, and consequently their fitness for the food of man or beast, jeopardizing also by it, the integrity of the growth of products, often causing their premature decay, also abortion and unnatural growth, and the ultimate extermination of the species. We are led to notice such results in the present growth and maturity of potatoes, wheat, apples, grasses, etc. Also to inquire into the causes of diseases incident to crops of a constitutional decline, such as congestion, gangrene, etc., the cause of parasites, and the propagation of larva, and development of insects which becomes their natural enemy. Another important source of inquiry is the extent to which the natural and deciduous growths of every soil (taking climate into account) can be made to indicate the character of the soil, the nature of its productions -every hoof that compacts the earth, every stone that is turned, and every leaf that falls, gives some new indication of growth.

It is equally important to comprehend the physiology generally of the vegetable kingdom, and afterwards the pathological condition, caused by chemical changes, effects of light, heat, electricity, and other natural causes.

We beg leave to impress the truth that our county, in a geographical position, north and south, and east and west, offers the very best facilities for such investigation. Being central between the northern and southern extremity of a State, whose latitude, and climate, and geological features, conduce to the growth of such families of plants that on the one hand are tending to the tropical, and on the other more carbonaceous in their elements, and of the more torrid or southern in nature-we are enabled to comprehend them both in our field of scientific research. We also beg leave to suggest that we are in a region of country comparatively new comprehending nearly half the eastern half of the state, with soil unsurpassed in fertility, at prices within the reach of those aiming to avail themselves of advantages compatible with our agricultural tastes and enterprise, while the north, the west and the southwest portions are amply supplied. For the want of such inducements to invite in immigrants, our vast grand prairie is yet sparsely settled. Once grant to this eastern part of the State the patronage of the treasury, and the immigration it will entice here, will amply reward in revenue and scientific toil, all that may be expended. Situated, too, as we are, upon the branch of the Illinois Central Railroad, where a college of that character must become a valuable beneficiary to that road, and thru' it to the State, we suggest that it is not inappropriate to ask that a portion of the 7% fund arising from the road, be set apart for that purpose, thus reflecting back for the future encouragement of that gigantic enterprise a generous part of her own earnings.— We also suggest that we have in process of erection an edifice of 124 by 118 ft, five stories high, estimated at $80,000 located between Urbana and Champaign on some eight or ten acres of land, designed to comprise an agricultural department, which the stockholders propose to donate to the State, for the consideration that they sustain in it an institution characterized as above; and further say that should your honorable body deem it not politic to receive the building and conduct the school as aforesaid, wholly

by state appropriations, we ask respectfully that you endow an agricultural department therein, in association with the academic course where practical science can be made available in developing men for the age, and mind for the necessities of a progressive people. For which we will ever pray.