Approved July 23, 1866.
The following table shows the number of acres which should fall to each State under the law, with other facts of value for future reference: The schools thus endowed by Congress, and accepting the grant, have now gone into more or less successful operation. Among those most notably so, the pioneer school, which has given some of the newer colleges _professors who have already attained eminence in scientific agricult ural investigation, may be noticed the Agricult tural College of Michigan, which college, working singly and constantly in the interest of agri cultural education, now leads in real utility iiany later and more pretentious ones which have tried to set a "full table," and spread their energies over the whole ocean of literature, science and art. Other western colleges which are not attached as a part of other colleges and which have done constant good work, are those of Iowa and Kan sas. The Industrial University of Illinois, in its early attempts to cover too much grotind in the direction of general literature, allowed agriculture and mechanics to take a second place in the studies. Of late years, under the persistent of the press and the voice of the peoplejt has done-better work; under theliber ality of the State, in the erection of masterful build ings and the appropriations for apparatus, it may now be said to take rank in its scope and aim with any in the country. Especially so during the year 1880, under the management of the new regent. To continue to do so all these colleges should bear'constantly in mind that experiment is the key to all agricultural knowledge. The profess ors must be men of more than ordinary attain ment§ in science, ' since agriculture is founded upon all science, or rather includes in its scope something of all science. Thus these professors have not one or two, but, all the sciences to deal with. It is their province to investigate as well as teach. They must educate in the fields as well as in the lecture hall and the laboratory. If this combination can not be found, then the working professor must take the students just where the theoretical professor left them, for the farm is the field where problems propounded in the lecture room or study must be workd out The soil is nature's great laboratory, where the elements are formed into grass, timber, grain, vegetables, fruits, fibers and flowers. So, also, the animals of the farm are labora`tnries for the conversion of grass, grain, vegetables,- etc., into flesh for the sustenance of man. All growth consists primarily of chemical changes and transformations, which result in elaborating from the elements, through the me dium of the soil, all the varied and wonderful vegetable wealth that clothes the earth, from the minute lichen upon the bare rock to the giant monarch of the forest, which slowly accumulates its structure through decades of centuries. The farmer assists nature in these transformations by such mechanical means as he may be able to em ploy. Scientific agriculture should go still fur ther. It should teach why certain conditions were necessary and, how produced. This is what makes the difference between the farmer and agriculturist. The farmer knows how, by me chanical effort, under favorable influences, he may produce crops. The, agriculturist seeks to know why certain causes produce favorable or unfavorable results, in order that he may in crease the one or guard against the other. This knowledge has made a Coiling, a Bakewell, a Buel, a Downing, and many other self-educated men. They, however, bear no greater propor tion to the masses than the great oak does to the various trees of the forest. We need this class of minds in our agricultural colleges, to develop the practical application of science to agriculture. The agriculturist- wants to know something of many things, but it is folly to suppose that, in or four years. The knowledge in the various. sciences pertaining to agriculture should be con densed, so that the student expecting soon to return to the farm might work directly towards the end sought; while his " chum," who is aiming to make scientific pursuits his profession for life, either as a teacher or writer, might climb and. explore science after science at will. The farmer, of course, though less profoundly versed in mere technics, might still keep pace with the new dis coveries in his profession by a judicious system of reading. The ordinary farmer is not able to give his children more than one, two or three years of scientific education. In this time the student should acquire a knowledge of the nature and composition of soils, and of the economy of animal and vegetable life ; should investi gate the effects produced upon soils by mechan ical means, such as deep and shallow, trench and sub-soil plowing ; should study the benefits of thorough drainage and other methods of work order to acquire this certain knowledge, he must follow out the science relating to a coordinate study in its most abstruse bearings or minuter details. A single example will illustrate our meaning. Of the commoner insects there are between two hun dred and three hundred varietieanoxious or bene ficial to vegetation. The farmer should be con versant with these, and should learn their history and habits—the means for the destruction of the first' and the manner of increasing and protect ing the second, etc. Under the old system, the student must learn all about the infinite orders, families and sub-families that compose insect life, in order to acquire what he wants. To follow out this idea, life would be too short to get even a smattering of agriculture, and hence the disre pute into which the system has fallen. If, on the other hand, those insects, destructive or beneficial to vegetation, were thoroughly classified, and their history and habits presented as far as known, • with natural specimens properly ar ranged in cases, the student would soon acquire a correct knowledge of all that would be neces sary for him to know of entomology. Similar principles should govern the other sciences—at least in the case of the student of two, three ing the soil; should master the principles of proper rotation of crops; should store his mind with information relative to the application of special manures adapted to certain crops, and the like practical details, etc. The agricultural student should also understand something of the formation and nature of soils, and the chemical changes they undergo other than from mechan ical disintegration. He should know precisely the action of certain manures, their effects upon various soils, either as a top dressing or plowed under. He should understand just where and
when fall or spring plowing, or both, would be most beneficial. He should acquaint him self with the various and 'best manner of sheltering' and feeding stock and fitting them for market; not in ten thousand dollar barns and stables, but practically. He should become well versed in the adaptation of farm animals to the uses required; to sheltering and fitting them for market; and with farm structures, fences and fencing materials. In vegetable economy the student should under stand as much as possible of the nature and growth of plants; their botanical characteristics, including variation and varieties; the adaptability of various plants to certain climates, with the proper means of their acclimatization, etc. He should study entomology, so far as it concerns insects beneficial or injurious to vegetation, and mineralogy and geology so far as they relate to soil. So with other subjects. The student should pursue them to the bounds within which they pertain to his profession, but no further than this, if he wishes to put to practical every-day use on the farm simply the knowledge he has acquired. The education of girls should differ from that of boys in its practical bearing. This is really one of the most vital questions of the •day. Girls should ix: educated with reference to their duties as W17C3 and mothers as well as to the economy of the household. They should be well versed in pomology, floriculture, bee-keep ing, the care of poultry, and other light and suit able branches of agriculture. They should un derstand the chemical and other changes which milk undergoes during its manufacture into but ter and cheese. They should understand struc tural botany, vegetable physiology‘ and the vari ous other studies that would enable them in after hfe to become true counselors and partners in all that pertains to farm life. Let us examine this point in some of its bearings. How many farm ers are there who know the power which water has exerted in the earth's history, and still exerts upon the farm every day ? that by its action all our stratified rocks were formed ? that to its sol vent power and chemical action we owe our use ful minerals and our metallic deposits ? that it is the great mechanical power in nature ? that it has moved mountains and filled valleys through its glacial action ? or that through its agency our most fertile soils been deposited over vast *seas ? Again, how many know that the sun is the moving life-power upon the earth, and that through the action of its rays upon water we have dew, clouds, fogs, rain, snow and frost ? How many know that the crystalline rocks at the 'earth's surface contain a greater quantity of water than all the seas and rivers of the globe ; that if the conditions surrounding us should change so that the earth would absorb only one part in four thousand of water, more than it now con tains, the ocean would disappear, and we should lose not only our moisture, but the atmosphere itself ? How many comprehend that it is the sun, after all, which is the great master power that moves all on earth, water being only, the agent ? Now, the student in agriculture should understand, for instance, how the agency of water is exerted for the benefit of the farmer ; but it is not necessary that he should know every thing whiCh science teaches about water in all its forms and phases. Life is too short for such all-em bracin investigations. Nature's silent opera tions 'on the farm are a succession of miracles, until we understand the laws by which she works. Then they become to our wondering minds as simple as they are beautiful, even in their vastness and complexity. The number of tons of water raised by an acre of corn, during its summer growth, is simply marvelous. How many farmers understand the process by which it is accomplished, or- can realize the immense measure of force and energy expended by nature in producinghis twenty to fifty bushels of corn per acre ? How many appreciate the important that it is in his power to assist nature in economizing a portion of this vast force, by ena bling her to produce ten, twenty, thirty bushels more of grain per acre than his land now yields? Hardly one in a thousand , and why ? Simply because they have never been educated to their calling—have never been taught to use their senses alight ; to store- their minds with useful, expansive knowledge ; or to reason from causeto effect, and from effect back to cause. It is this knowing something of many things that makes the practical man ; the knowing all about some one or two special things, the scholar, This knowledge, as gray hairs grow, comes slowly to a thinking man. What we want is to hasten the ripening of this practical knowledge among the masses, through schools especially devoted to the departments of science relating to agriculture and other pursuits. A man may be a good chemist and botanist; may understand the anatomy and structure of animals, with their diseases and the remedies necessary to their cure; may under stand the nature and composition of soils—all these' without being a farmer; nevertheless, if a farmer, he can not have studied the several branches in their bearing upon agriculture with out being a much better one therefor. After ward, if he chooses to make a specialty of any one of the sciences, what should hinder ? He has the foundation to work on, if he so desire. On the other hand, those whose means might allow them to spend a longer time would necessarily Want a different curriculum. To the one class of stu dents the classics would not be beneficial ; to the other they would be necessary, as enabling them to pursue their higher studies more surely. The ground work of all education is begun in our common schools. From these the student should go to our colleges for special education, and should have a definite idea of what he or she wants. The agricultural college must commence just where the other schools leave off, and carry the student forward in such of the sciences as will apply to his case. First of all, however, he must come to understand that labor, of whatso ever kind it may be, is always honorable, and none more ennobling to the man of broad mind than agriculture. With this he must come to know that education to this industry will place him far in advance of the one who practices hus bandry as a mere manual art.