feel that this step has materially hastened the coming of scientific and practical education for all who desire, and are willing to work for it. It can not come too soon.”

Governor Hunt, of New York, in his annual message to the Legislature of that State, used the following language: "Much interest has been manifested for some years past in favor of creating an institution for the advancement of agricultural science, and of knowledge in mechanical arts. The views in favor of this measure, expressed in my last annual communication, remain unchanged. My impressions are still favorable to the plan of combining in one college two distinct departments for instructions in agriculture and mechanical sciences. I would respectfully recommend that a sufficient portion of the proceeds of the next sale of lands for taxes be appropriated to the erection of an institution, which shall stand as a lasting memorial of our munificence, and contribute to the diffusion of intelligence among the producing classes, during all future time."

Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, of Boston, in advocating this system of education before the Berkshire Agricultural Society of Massachusetts, held that: "For want of knowledge, millions of dollars are now annually lost by the Commonwealth, by the mis-application of capital and labor industry.

On these points we want a system of experiments directed by scientific knowledge. Are they not important to our farmers? Neither the agricultural papers, periodicals, or societies, or any other agents now in operation, are deemed sufficient for all that are desirable. We plead that the means and advantages of a professional education should be placed within the reach of our farmers. This would not only be one of the most important steps ever taken by the Commonwealth for its permanent advancement and prosperity, but would add

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another wreath to her renown for the protection of our industry and elevation of her sons."

Rev. Dr. Hitchcock, President of Amherst College, while advocating the endowments of such institutions, before the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture (1851), testified as follows: "I have been a lecturer on chemistry for twenty years. I have tried a great many experiments in that time, but I do not know of any experiments so delicate or so difficult as the farmer is trying every week. The experiments of the laboratory are not to be compared to them. You have a half dozen sciences which are concerned in the operation of a farm. There is to be a delicate balancing of all these, as every farmer knows. To suppose that a man is going to be able, without any knowledge of these sciences, to make improvements in agriculture by haphazard experiments, is, it seems to me, absurd."

THE ALBANY, NEW YORK, CONVENTION ON AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION.

A general Convention on the subject of a national system of practical university education, was held at Albany, January 26, 1853. This Convention was numerously attended by some of the most illustrious men of the country, including many distinguished educators, scientists, and divines. A committee of twenty-one was appointed to report a plan of action. Among these appear the names of President Wayland, of Brown University; Bishop Potter, of Pennsylvania; Washington Irving; Governor Hunt and Senator Dix, of New York; President Hitchcock, of Amherst College; Professors Webster, Dewey, Henry, and Bache; Professor Mitchell, of Cincinnati; Professor Pierce, of Cambridge, etc. Rev. Dr. Kennedy spoke of "the want that had long been

felt for institutions different from those already established." Professor C. S. Henry insisted that "the welfare of our country was, in a great degree, dependent upon what should be done in regard to the proposed university." Rev. Ray Palmer said "there was lack of opportunity for scientific men to perfect themselves in their various pursuits, and desired that this want should be supplied to all parts of the country."

Rev. Dr. Wykoff considered that the first desideratum to the establishment of the institution was a conviction of its importance. When the souls of men are fired up, the money will not be wanting. He believed that the proper spirit was abroad-a feeling that would redound to the honor and benefit of the people, and that the work would be done. The enterprise was one for the masses. It would It would open the path of knowledge for all the youth in the land; and, from the common school to the highest university, he would like to see our educational institutions thrown open to all.

Professor Henry said that he should bid the enterprise "God speed!" He deprecated the idea of attempting to establish a university at a moderate outlay. "One fitted for the wants of this country should throw open its lecture rooms freely, to all who might wish to avail themselves of their advantages. It should be the complete development of the principle which lies at the foundation of our common schools." Rev. President Wayland expressed the belief that "such an establishment in New York would be an example, which, he believed, would be followed in other States. A university with a thousand students would abundantly sustain itself; and he thought the needed expense would not bę so great as some gentlemen anticipated."

Did these gentlemen know any thing about the subject of practical education in America?

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THE VOICE OF AGRICULTURE.

Said the lamented Downing, the father of rural art in this country, in the last number which he edited of the Horticulturist: "The leaven for the necessity for education among

the industrial classes begin to work, we are happy to perceive, in many parts of the country." Speaking of the plan. of Professor Turner, he said: "It is not often that the weak

points of an ordinary collegiate education are so clearly exposed, and the necessity of workingmen's universities so plainly demonstrated." This was in July, 1853. Before the article was published this pre-eminent disciple of his art was lost in the ill-fated steamer Henry Clay.

An editorial in the North American (the oldest paper in Philadelphia) on education and agriculture, said to be written by Judge Conrad, said: "To secure the diffusion and practical application of agricultural science, it seems necessary that it should be interwoven with general education, and its acquisition made an' object of early pride and animated ambition." "The triumph of a

republic can only be successfully achieved and permanently enjoyed by a people the mass of whom are an enlightened yeomanry, the proprietors of the land they till, too independent to be bought, too enlightened to be cheated, and too powerful to be crushed."

Said Dr. Lee, the talented editor of the Southern Cultivator, the leading monthly periodical of the southern planting interest, published at Augusta, Georgia, in reply to a letter inquiring for some practical agricultural school for the sons of the planters (which letter he published as a "fair sample of scores of similar letters received every month"): "There is not a good agricultural school in the United States. The truth is, the American people have yet to commence the study of agriculture as the combination of many sciences. Agriculture is the most profound and extensive profession that the progress of society and the accumulation of knowledge have developed. This is why the popular mind is so long in grasping it. Whether we consider the solid earth. under our feet, the invisible atmosphere which we breathe, the wonderful growth and decay of all plants and animals; or, the light, the heat, the cold, the electricity of heaven,