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AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

OP

PENNSYLVANIA;

EMBRACING

A Succinct History of Agricultural Education in Europe and America, to-
gether with the circumstances of the Origin, Rise and Progress of
the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania; as also a State-
ment of the Present Condition, Aims and Prospects
of this Institution, its Course of Instruction,
Facilities for Study, Terms of Ad-
mission, &c. &c.

DRAWN UP 1JY A COMMITTEE

APPOINTED FOR THIS PURPOSE BY THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES.

ft

1

siiPYiianBia, nn.

PHILADELPHIA:
WILLIAM S. YOUNG, PRINTER, NO. 52 NORTH SIXTH STREET. £

1862. «

J£ Mi

THE

AGRICULTURAL

OF

PENNSYLVANIA;

EMBRACING

A Succinct History of Agricultural Education in Europe and America, to-
gether with the circumstances of the Origin, Kise and Progress of
the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania; as also a State-
ment of the Present Condition, Aims and Prospects
of this Institution, its Course of Instruction,
Facilities for Study, Terms of Ad-
mission, &c. &c.

DRAWN UP BY A COMMITTEE

APPOINTED FOR THIS PURPOSE BY THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES.

SSWSI0M1B, 48$

<-f^G2S&fo2&rK'

PHILADELPHIA:
WILLIAM S. YOUNG, PRINTER, NO. 52 NORTH SIXTH STREET.

1862.

•jgAJtl

U*

- $>**£

OtFf.

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- •

• : • .

CONTENTS.

Historical.

Agricultural Education in Europe, .... 5

Thaer's School, ...... 6

Pestalozzi's System of Combining Manual Labor and Study, 7

Recent Progress of Agricultural Educational Institutions, . 8

Agricultural Education in America, ... 9

Agricultural Education in New York, ... 9

Michigan — Massachusetts— Maryland, ... 11

Iowa — ^Minnesota — Illinois — Ohio — Agricultural Professorship, 12

The Agricultural College of Pennsylvania, . . . 13

Agricultural Societies in Pennsylvania, . . . 13

Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society, ... 13

Origin of Agricultural Education, ... 13

Kind of Agricultural Schools Wanted, . . . 14

Origin of the State Agricultural Society, . . 15

An Agricultural School, ..... 16

The Farmers High School of Pennsylvania, . . 16

Act of Incorporation, . . . . . 17

Report on Plan-of Organizing a School, ... 18

A Call for Offers of a Site for the School, . . . 19

An Offer of a Site by Judge Miles, ... 20

Meeting of the Executive Board, . . . . 23

Organization of the Board of Trustees, ... 24

Sites Offered, . ... . . . 24

Report of Committee to Examine Sites, ... $5

Final Vote on the Location of the School, ... 27

Solicitation of aid from the State, .... 28

Plans for College Buildings, .... 28

Contract to Erect College Buildings, ... 28

First Annual Meeting of Delegates, ... 28

Appropriation by the State Legislature, ... 29

A Large Meeting of Delegates, .... 30

Financial Difficulties, ..... 33

Contractor unable to fulfil his Contract, ... 34

Embarrassment of the Board, .... oo

320944

17.

CONTENTS.

The Agricultural College of Pennsylvania.

Prospect of Failure,

Opening School, ...
. Faculty for 1860, ....

Final Appeal to the State Legislature,

Completion of the College Buildings,.

Change of Name, .....

Object op the Institution, ....

The Collece as it will be in Operation next year, 1863,
Buildings, ......

Course op Studies, .....

Course for Graduates, . . . .

Auxiliaries to Study, .....

The Full Course, ....

Partial Scientific and Practical Course,
Practical Course, ....

Special Peculiarities and Advantages of the Course,

Conditions, and Form of Admission,

Expenses, .......

Location, . . . . .

Farming Material, .....

Reaping Machines.

36
37
38
39
42
43
45
49
49
51
52
53
55
56
56
56
58
58
59
60
60

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. .

The idea of educational institutions especially devoted
to agriculture and the industrial arts, is of comparatively
modern origin. Among ancient authors we find several
very respectable attempts to lay down rules for agricultural
practice, but the writers being wholly ignorant of science,
were unable to give the rationale of the most simple facts
in agriculture; and hence agricultural schools for instruc-
tion in agricultural principles were out of the question.

In modern times the interest manifested in agricultural
education has grown with the development of modern
science. In the first half of the eighteenth century a
number of works upon agriculture appeared, in which the
few faint glimpses of experimental science, at that time
known, were used to illuminate agricultural practice.

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN EUROPE.

As early as 1730, Wallerius was engaged in chemico-
agricultural investigations in Sweden, while Jethro Tull
was developing his system of practical farming in England;
and in 17G1, the former published a work (Agricultural
Fundamenta Chemica) in which he sought to develop a
system of manuring founded on the examination of the
ashes of plants. Quesnay, in 1747, founded the Physio-
cratic School in France; the principal object of which was
the dissemination of agricultural ideas. A little later, ag-
ricultural societies were founded in Switzerland, Saxony,
and Hanover; and as the interest in the dissemination of
agriculture increased, agricultural professorships were esta-

2

6 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES.

blished in the universities of Goettingen, (1769,) Giessen,
Rostock, and Leipsic, (1778;) and soon after this, says a
recent writer,* agricultural instruction was given in all
the High Schools of the country. As yet, however, no
agricultural schools had been founded.

thaer's school.

To the immortal Thaer is due the honor of first con-
ceiving, and attempting to carry out, the idea of founding
educational institutions especially devoted to instruction in
agricultural science and practice. f

Not only did Thaer see the necessity of having a system
of education developed to correspond to the wants of the
farmer, but, with surprising acuteness, he discerned what
should constitute the general principles according to which
this system should be built up. In his principles of agri-
culture, (1809,) after dwelling upon the necessity of a
knowledge of Botany, Zoology, and Chemistry, and other
sciences, to an intelligent appreciation of agricultural prac-
tice, he goes on to remark, that "it is then evident that agri-
culture ought to borrow from every science the principles which
she employs as the foundation of her own" With these ideas
he founded his agricultural school. An English traveller
who visited it in 1820, says: —

"It comprised a model farm of 1200 acres, and a college for in-
struction. The education was partly theoretical, and partly of a
practical description. The former was provided for by three Pro-

* Dr. Be"rnbaum Lehrbuch der Landwirthscbaft. Vol. I. P. 31.

f Albrecht D. Thaer was born in Hanover, Germany, 1752. He studied at the
University of Goettingen about the time (1770) that Prof. Walther commenced his
course of lectures on agriculture at that institution; and although he devoted him-
self, while a student, to the study of medicine, he doubtless saw enough of the dis-
advantages of attempting agricultural education in an old conservative institution
with stereotyped habits, to satisfy him that a course of instruction so radically dif-
ferent from that of the university, as that of scientific and practical agriculture
must be, could only be carried out properly in a new order of institution especially
adapted to agricultural science and practice. About 1800 he started a small agri-
cultural school at his native town, Celle, in Hanover, but in 1803 it was broken up
by the invasion of the French. Soon after, at the urgent solicitations of the King
of Prussia. (1804,) he went to Beilin and founded the Agricultural School, with
model farm, (400 acres,) at Moeglin, about 20 miles from the Prussian capital.
The disastrous defeat of the Prussian army at Jena, and the subsequent occupation
of Berlin by Napoleon's troops, (1806,) for a time delayed Thaer's plans; but, in
1807, he opened his school with 10' students, and after the peace of Tilset he had
an uninterrupted success with his school and farm till near his death in 1828.

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. /

fessors, who lived upon the premises ; one for mathematics, Chemis-
try and Geology ; one for the veterinary art ; and the third for Botany
and the use of the various vegetable productions in the materia
medica as well as for entomology. The practical instruction was
communicated by an experienced agriculturist, who pointed out
the method of applying the principles of the several sciences, to the
daily routine of husbandry. The course commenced in September.
During' the winter months the time of the pupils was occupied in the
study of mathematics, and the six books of Euclid were mastered by
them ; whilst in the summer the knowledge thus obtained was
applied to the measurement of land, timber, buildings, and other
practical purposes. The first principles of Chemistry were also un-
folded. By means of a good but economical apparatus, various ex-
periments either on a large or small scale were performed. For
the larger ones the brew-house and still-house with their appendages
were found to be highly useful. Much attention was directed to
the analysis of the Soils, and' the different sorts met with distinguished
according to the relative proportion of their component parts, were
arranged on the shelves with great order and regularity. There
was an extensive botanic garden, arranged according to the system
of Linnaeus ; an herbarium, containing a large collection of dried
plants; a series of the skeletons of different animals connected
with husbandry; and models of- agricultural implements, all open to
the examination of students. The various .implements used upon
the farm were all made by smiths, wheelwrights, &c, residing around
about the institution; and the pupils were allowed access to the
workshops and encouraged to make themselves masters by minutely
inspecting the implements, and the niceties of their construction."

Thaer's school demonstrated the necessity of such insti-
tutions, and hence a number of similar ones sprung up,
under liberal government patronage, in different parts of
Germany; as that of Tharant, near Dresden, (founded
1811) for Sylviculture, and those of Hohenheim in Wurtem-
burg, (1818) and Weyhenstephen in Bavaria, (1822) for
agriculture.

PESTALOZZl's SYSTEM OF COMBINING MANUAL LABOR AND

STUDY.

While Thaer was thus developing his system of agricul-
tural education in Germany, Pestalozzi (born at Zurich
1745 and died 1827) was laboring in Switzerland to build
up a system of education for the benefit of the poor, that
would combine manual with mental labor. And this sysr

8 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES.

tem, under the patronage of Fellenberg, with the labor of
Wehrli, was inaugurated at Hofwyl, near Berne; where,
in addition to a school for the poor, was also one for the
sons of gentlemen of wealth, who wished to study agricul-
tural science and practice ; and at a later period an addi-
tional department for the education of teachers was estab-
lished. After the death of Pestalozzi and Thaer the num-
ber of agricultural schools gradually increased in Europe,
till about the year 1840. The system of Pestalozzi (impro-
perly called the Wehrli system) was gradually introduced,
with various improvements and modifications for the benefit
of the poor, and that of Thaer for the more independent
classes, and in some institutions both were combined.

RECENT PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATIONAL INSTI-
TUTIONS.

All these attempts at agricultural instruction were very
imperfect, owing to the very undeveloped state of agricul-
tural science. But the labors of De Sausure, Gay-Lussac,
Thenard, Lavoisier, Sennebier, Priestley, Ingenhauss,
Davy, and other scientific men, were preparing the way for
an agricultural science which in the length and breadth of
its domain, and the accuracy of its result, would afford am-
ple material for thorough mental training and a prolonged
college course.

In 1840, Liebig, under the title of " Chemistry in rela-
tion to Agriculture and Physiology," published a work in
which was exhibited all his characteristic power of pre-
senting in clear and forcible language, all that his prede-
cessors had learned in regard to agricultural science, com-
bined with what his own investigations and reflections had
taught him. This work astounded the reading world; it
was soon translated into the different languages of all cul-
tivated people, and awakened the most active spirit of in-
quiry in the minds of all educated men. Hundreds of
scientific and practical men, in Europe and America, be-
took themselves to experimentation in the field and labo-
ratory, to test the correctness of Liebig's views.

While in many cases of detail, these investigations led
to the modification of many of Liebig's opinions, in the

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 9

main they were found to be correct, and the necessity for
agricultural schools in which to teach the newly developed
science of agriculture, became more apparent every where,
and accordingly we find that the number of such schools
has been increasing with surprising rapidity within the
last twenty years. So that at present we find about twenty
High Agricultural Schools or Colleges in Germany alone,
three in France, one in England, one in Ireland, one in
Holland, and in addition to these, several hundred ele-
mentary agricultural schools for the peasantry, and a large
number of Professorships of Agriculture in the different
Universities of Europe. Nearly all the high schools and
colleges have farms attached, and extensive means in the
laboratory and field to experiment in agricultural science
and practice.

The principal part of them are supported, in part, by
state patronage, and their increasing number and import-
ance is a marked indication of the necessity of their exist-
ence. Even in Russia, an agricultural school was founded
near St. Petersburgh about twenty-four years ago, at which
the Emperor educated the serfs who were to help manage
the immense estates of his realm. They devoted five years
to labor and study so as to become familiar with the best
methods of agricultural practice, and then were sent one by
one to different parts of the Empire to infuse a knowledge
of what they had learned into the minds of others; about
sixty such were sent out annually; since this time other
agricultural schools have been founded in that country.

It was hardly possible that the subject of agricultural
education should have occupied so prominent a place in
the minds of European agriculturists, without attracting a
corresponding degree of interest in American minds. In-
deed, before any of the great modern scientific agricultural
schools of Europe were founded, the necessity for the pro-
fessional education of young farmers was proclaimed from
American lips.

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN NEW YORK.

As early as 1838, the Hon. Jesse Buell was pleading the

10 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES.

cause of Agricultural Education in New York. In an
address prepared for delivery before the Agricultural and
Horticultural society of New Haven, Connecticut, (a short
time before his death) September 25, 1839, after dwelling
upon the fact, that we have schools for the study of the
sciences of medicine, law, engineering and. war, and de-
claring that for agriculture, by which, under the blessing of
Providence, we virtually live and move and have our being,
and which truly embraces a wider range of useful science
than either law, medicine, or navigation, we have no means
of professional education at all, he proceeds to point out
the evil consequences of this absence of agricultural schools,
in which to teach the principles and practice of agriculture,
and urges upon farmers the necessity of having them estab-
lished, and closes his appeal with the prophetic declara-
tion, that t( many who now hear me will live to see pro-
fessional schools established, in our land; to see their utility
extolled, and to be induced to consider them the best nurse-
ries of republican virtues, and the surest guarantee for the
perpetuation of our liberties. They should be established,
they ivill be established, and the sooner they are established
the better for our country." (See page 280, The Farmer's
Companion of 1840.) From 1842 till 1846, the subject of
agricultural education was discussed by prominent citizens
of the New York Agricultural Society, and in the latter
year an effort was made to induce the Legislature to take
some action upon the subject.

The question was repeatedly brought before the Legisla-
ture in subsequent years, but elicited no action till 1853,
when a bill was passed incorporating the " New York Agri-
cultural College," but providing no means for founding it.
In 1855 a subscription was opened, and soon after an act
of Legislature passed, loaning the college $40,000 for twenty
years without interest, provided a like sum be raised by
private subscriptions for the purchasing of a farm, erecting
of College buildings, &c, &c. Soon afterwards a farm was
secured of 700 acres, between the village of Ovid and the
eastern shore of Seneca Lake. A large college building
was laid out and a part of it finished so as to admit 150
students. The college was open for students on the first

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 11

day of December, 1860, but it did not survive the general de-
pression produced by the war, and at present its doors are
closed.

The People's College, which was also designed to be, in
part, agricultural in character, was incorporated in 1853
by an act of Legislature, and subsequently located upon
a tract of 200 acres of land in Schuyler county, New
York. The buildings of this college have been partially
completed, but it is not yet in successful operation.

MICHIGAN.

The State of Michigan has a clause in her constitution
(adopted 1850) providing for an Agricultural College, in
accordance with which, in 1855, the Legislature appro-
priated $50,000, with which a tract of 700 acres of land
was purchased, near Lansing, and buildings erected upon
it for an Agricultural College. In 1857 an additional
$40,000 was appropriated to the College, and in the follow-
ing May, students were admitted. To Michigan belongs
the honor of thus having put the first State Agricultural
College in the United States in operation, but for some
cause this College has been obliged to suspend operation.

MASSACHUSETTS.

The Massachusetts Legislature, as early as 1850, appoint-
ed committees to investigate the subject of Agricultural
education, and in 1856 incorporated a " school of agricul-
ture," and the question is still under consideration by pro-
minent citizens of the state, but as yet, the school has
not been founded.

MARYLAND.

The Maryland Agricultural College was incorporated in
the winter of 1856, and soon after located upon the home-
stead of the Hon. Charles B. Calvert, upon a farm of 400
acres, ten miles north of Washington City; the act pro-
vided for an annual appropriation of $6,000, for the sup-
port of the college, provided the sum of $50,000 was first
received by subscription; this amount being received, the
college was partially completed and opened for students in
1860, and has been in successful operation since that time. It
differs from the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania, in its

12 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES.

course of instruction, being more nearly allied to that of
ordinary literary colleges, and consequently having a less
scientific course, and in its not requiring manual labor
of each student upon the farm.

IOWA.

The Iowa State Agricultural College and Farm was incor-
porated in March, 1858, and some provisions were made
for the erection of college buildings, but the disturbed state
of the country has for some time suspended operations there.

MINNESOTA.

The Minnesota Agricultural College was incorporated in
1858, and located on a farm of 320 acres in Glen County,
but the buildings for a college have not yet been erected.

ILLINOIS.

The agitation in favor of Agricultural Colleges in Illinois
was commenced early by public-spirited men, and as early
as 1852 the Legislature was memorialized upon the sub-
ject. Repeated efforts have been made by the friends of
agriculture in the state, to induce the Legislature to found
an Agricultural College, yet nothing has been done by the
state. But private enterprise has succeeded in establish-
ing the embryo of an agricultural college near Chicago,
though it is languishing for that aid which every enlight-
ened state should confer upon agricultural education.

OHIO.

The State of Ohio has had the subject of agricultural
education before its Legislature at different times, but
nothing tangible has, so far as we know, resulted from its
action. A Farmers' College, with a few acres of land, has
been established by private enterprise near Cincinnati, but
its course of instruction does not differ essentially from
that of an ordinary literary college.

AGRICULTURAL PROFESSORSHIP.

In several of the Colleges and Universities of the United
States, Agricultural Chairs have been established.

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 13

In the preceding brief synopsis we have not mentioned
the names of the many public-spirited and liberal-minded
men, by whose disinterested efforts all these attempts to
found agricultural institutions of learning have been made.

It was sufficient for the purposes of this paper to briefly
note what they have done, and leave their names to history,
which will yet tell their deeds to unborn grateful millions,
who, in future generations, will enjoy the blessings of agri-
cultural education in institutions originating in their un-
rewarded and unappreciated efforts. We now come to that
which more nearly concerns us in the present history.

©to g^tmtftot Allege #f §mn$\pmm.

This Institution, though about the first that was founded
in the country, is still hardly old enough to constitute a
subject for a history ; but as many questions are often
asked in regard to its origin, it is deemed proper to devote
a few pages here to this subject.

AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES IN PENNSYLVANIA.

The State of Pennsylvania was one of the first in the
Union to adopt measures for the diffusion of agricultural
intelligence. As early as 1785 the Philadelphia Agricul-
tural Society was founded, and its members met regularly
for a number of years. In 1823, the Pennsylvania Agri-
cultural Society including the counties of Philadelphia,
Chester, Montgomery, and Delaware, was founded. This
Society held some fairs during its existence.

PENNSYLVANIA STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

In 1851, the present Pennsylvania State Agricultural
Society was organized, under the auspices of which the
Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania (now the Agri-
cultural College of Pennsylvania) originated. As already
intimated, the primary idea of Educational Institutions,
especially devoted to instruction in agriculture, and the
industrial arts, was of much earlier origin.

ORIGIN OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION.

It was a legitimate consequence of the progress of modern

14 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES.

science and its important bearings upon the practical
operations of life, together with the general diffusion of
knowledge among all classes, by which the purely sci-
entific and purely practical man were brought into con-
tact with each other.

The necessity for Agricultural Schools was apparent to
any one at all acquainted with the resources of science,
or the demands of Agricultural practice.

The importance of Agricultural Education being recog-
nised, the only question at issue, related to the manner in
which a system of Agricultural Education should be in-
augurated.

KIND OF AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS WANTED.

Did the Agricultural interest demand a course of in-
struction as extensive as that of our ordinary Colleges,
obliging the student to devote three to five years to the study
of those sciences which relate to agricultural and the in-
dustrial arts, as in the highest Agricultural Institutions in
Europe, or did it demand only an elementary course, such
as is there given in their schools for Farm Bailiffs, who
are not supposed to have the tastes and aspirations of
those whom they technically term gentlemen?

Was it desirable that the farmer should have such a
knowledge of agricultural science, as would enable him to
investigate and develop agricultural principles, or was it
simply desirable to teach him to practise those rules,
which others deduced for him from principles he could
not understand? Was it desirable that one large Agri-
cultural Institution be founded in a State, capable of em-
ploying a sufficient number of professors to admit of a
proper division of labor amongst them, and consequently
enable them to afford a thorough and efficient course of
instruction, in order to educate a few students to a high
standard? or was it better to have several smaller local
Institutions capable of giving only a popular smattering to
a larger number of students? These questions were can-
vassed by various parties, and the several different plans
they refer to, proposed by different individuals, but with-
out any one being accompanied with sufficient evidence in

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 15

its favor, to leave no doubt of its being the best system.
But the time had come for trying the experiment.

A number of prominent men in Pennsylvania had been
thinking upon the necessity of Agricultural Education
for several years. An Agricultural Institution of learn-
ing, adapted to the wants of the farmer, had been a favor-
ite idea with the present worthy President of the Board
of Trustees of the Agricultural College of Pennsylva-
nia for twenty years before this Institution was founded;
but the pressing duties of public life prevented him from
devoting time to the advocacy of these views till, in 1853,
the subject was brought before the Pennsylvania State
Agricultural Society.

ORIGIN OF THE STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

This Society originated in a call, dated May 15, 1850,
for an Agricultural Convention to be held at Harrisburg,
on the 21st of January, 1851. It was signed by James
Gowen, Dr. Elwyn, Samuel C. Ford, Algernon S. Roberts
and J. P. Wetherill.

This Convention was attended by delegates from 55
counties of the State; after having organized, a committee
was appointed to memorialize the Legislature for a charter.
The Hon. Fred. Watts was appointed Chairman, and
Dr. A. Elwyn, Secretary for the year.

Upon the last three days of the following October, the
first annual fair of the Society was held at Harrisburg:
About 20,000 persons are supposed to have been present,
and the first annual meeting of the Society was held at
the same place, on the 20th of the following January,
(1852.)

The President, and Secretary, and Vice Presidents of
the preceding year, were re-elected.

The second annual exhibition was held on the 20th,
21st, and 22d of October, at Lancaster, and proved to be
an entire and unprecedented success, and the report of pre-
miums awarded by the Judges, was embodied in the first
annual report of the Society, presented by the President
to Governor Bigler, January 20th, 1854.

The second annual meeting convened January 18th,

16 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES.

1853*, a* Harrisburg. At this meeting, Messrs. Frederick
Watts, James H. Ewing and H. N. McAllister, were ap-
pointed members of a Board of Agriculture, in pursuance
of a provision of the United States Agricultural Society,
establishing such a Board; also, the following gentlemen
presented a report upon the subject of an Agricultural
School, A. S. Koberts, T. C. Carothers, I. Koenigmacher,
A. 0. Hiester, D. Mellinger.

AN AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL.

The members of this Committee state that they believe
the present to be an auspicious time for founding an Agri-
cultural School; that the advantages to be derived from
it, are too obvious to require demonstration, and that to
inaugurate the movement, they recommend the calling
of a general convention of Delegates from all parts of
the State, to meet at Harrisburg, to consider this subject;
whereupon it was resolved

" That an Agricultural Convention he held at Harris-
burg, on Tuesday, the 8th of March next, to adopt measures
for the establishment of an Agricultural Institution, to be
styled, ' Ihe Farmers High School of Pennsylvania, y with
a model farm attached thereto, and that the convention con-
sists of as many delegates from each district, as there are
Senators and Legislators from the same: said delegates to be
chosen by the Agricultural Societies where such are located,
and in other districts by the friends of Agricultural Edu-
cation."

THE FARMERS HIGH SCHOOL OF PENNSYLVANIA.

This convention met and, in the language of the Hon.
Frederick Watts, in a letter afterwards addressed to Go-
vernor Bigler, " with an unparalleled unanimity recom-
mended the establishment of a school for the education
of Farmers, and gave the subject in charge to a committee
to have it enacted into a law, and carried into effect."

This letter, which Judge Watts, as President of the
State Agricultural Society, addressed to Governor Bigler
on the occasion of his presenting the first copy of the
annual report of that Society, is devoted mainly to the
consideration of the proposed Agricultural School.

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 17

The advantages of such a school to the farmer, are
pointed out with the characteristic force and perspicuity
of the author, and a plan for its organization, together
with the probable expenses of founding and maintaining
it, is given.

In accordance with the decision of that committee, the
next Legislature was applied to for an Act of Incorpora-
tion, which was granted and approved, April 13th, 1854.

ACT OF INCORPORATION,

This act states that "the Institution shall be called the
Farmers High School of Pennsylvania, and shall be
under the control of a Board of Trustees, composed of the
Presidents of the County Agricultural Societies, and the
President and Yice President of the State Agricultural
Society, thirteen of whom shall constitute a quorum. They
are directed to meet at Harrisburg, on the 2d Thursday
of June after the passage of this act, and to organize and
select a site, and erect buildings for an Institution, and
procure a good practical farmer for its principal, who,
with such other persons, as shall from time to time be em-
ployed as teachers, shall compose the faculty."

The teachers are to be capable of imparting a know-
ledge of the English Language, Grammar, Geography,
History, Mathematics, and such other branches of the
natural and applied sciences, as would conduce to the
proper education of a farmer. And the students should
be required to perform a certain amount of manual labor
daily.

It was also made lawful for the State Agricultural So-
ciety to donate, out of its funds, for the purpose of the
act, the sum of $10,000.

It is obvious that this act contemplated an Institution
for a very elementary course of scientific and literary in-
struction, combined with instruction in practical agricul-
ture; but its most remarkable feature was the provision
for the control of the Institution.

It requires but little reflection to see that a responsi-
bility so divided as that devolving upon the trustees de-
signated in this act, would be felt by no one.

18 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES.

FIRST MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES.

But in conformity with the provisions of the act, a few
of the persons designated therein as trustees, met at Harris-
burg, on the 13th of June, 1854, to consider its provi-
sions, when it was found that a quorum of members was
not present.

On motion of the Hon. George W. Woodward, it was

Resolved, That Messrs. Frederick Watts, James Gowen,
and John Strohm, be appointed a committee to report a
plan of organization to the next meeting of the Board, to
be held on the 13th of July following, at Harrisburg.

At this adjourned meeting, only Messrs. Watts of Cum-
berland, Mumma and Rutherford of Dauphin, Mcllvaine
of Chester, Boal of Centre, and Baxter of Philadelphia,
were present.

REPORT ON PLAN OF ORGANIZING A SCHOOL.

In behalf of the committee to whom was referred the
subject of a plan of organization for the Farmers' High
School of Pennsylvania, the Hon. Frederick Watts re-
ported that the committee are of opinion, that no good
can result from any effort to organize under the existing
law, that it provides for too many trustees (50 or 60) —
that these are liable to be created or removed by causes
entirely independent of the interest of the school, and
they recommend that the Board shall consist of not more
than 13 in number, of whom 9 shall be elected, and 4
ex-officio members. The committee further state that the
bill is defective in view of its making no appropriation in
aid of the object to be attained by it, and they go on to say
that " There are many public-spirited men who believe
" that the establishment of such a school where boys may
"be educated as farmers, is of more importance than any
" design which could occupy public attention. It is afact
" universally known, that the literary institutions of this
"country, as at present constituted, educate young men
" to a state of total unfitness, not only for the pursuit of
" a former, but as a companion for his parents, brothers
" and sisters, with whom he is expected to spend his life.
" He is therefore driven from his father's estate, and into

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 19

" a profession for which he has perhaps little capacity,
" and where he is subjected to all the temptations of an
" idle life. Whereas, the Farm School proposes to impart
"an education which is appropriate to a farmer, which
" educates his body to the art, as well as his mind to the
" science of farming, and which will have the feature of
"making the Institution so nearly self-sustaining, as to
" bring education, in point of expense, within the reach of
"every man who desires to make his son an educated
" farmer."

The probable expense of founding and sustaining such
a school is then given, and the necessity of founding it
still further dwelt upon.

Whereupon, it was

Resolved, That the report be referred to Frederick Watts,
George W. Woodward, and A. L. Elwyn, whose duty it
should be to address the people of the State upon the sub-
ject, and to apply to the next Legislature to amend the
bill as indicated in the report, and that said committee
make all necessary inquiries where the Farmers High
School of Pennsylvania may be most advantageously lo-
cated, and that they invite propositions from all parts of
the State, for its locality.

A CALL FOR OFFERS OF A SITE FOR THE SCHOOL.

The committee published an address, July 21st, 1854,
to the people of Pennsylvania, setting forth the claims of
the school, and its advantages to farmers, and the prospect
of its soon being located, and tbey called upon persons for
offers of inducements to locate it in specified localities.

At the fourth annual meeting of the State Agricultural
Society, convened at Harrisburg, January 16th, 1855, a
resolution was passed expressive of the deep interest felt
by the State Agricultural Society of Pennsylvania in the
Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania, and praying the
Legislature, then in session, to make such change in the
Act of Incorporation of the Farmers' High School, as
would secure its establishment.

At this meeting, the following communication was re-
ceived, which, because of the liberality of the donor, and

20 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES.

of its being the first of its kind received, deserves a place
here.

AN OFFER OF A SITE BY JUDGE MILES.

Gentlemen: — Believing the Agricultural interests of our
State may be greatly and eminently promoted by the early
establishment of the Farmers' High School of Pennsylva-
nia, where a thorough, practical and scientific education
may be acquired by the youth of our State who desire to
make the tillage of the soil the business of their lives, I
beg to make known to you, and through you to the gen-
tlemen who are, or may be appointed trustees of the Far-
mers' High School of Pennsylvania, that I will give to the
Institution, two hundred acres of land, situated in Girard
Township, Erie County, provided said School be located
on said land.

Yours truly, James Miles.

Subsequent to this, the Legislature passed the following
Act of Incorporation of the Farmers' High School of
Pennsylvania.

An Act to Incorporate "The Farmers' High School of Penn-
sylvania : "

Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre-
sentatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in General As-
sembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the
same, That there be and is hereby erected and established, at the
place which shall be designated by the authority, and as herein-
after provided, an Institution for the education of youth in the
various branches of science, learning and practical agriculture, as
they are connected with each other, by the name, style and title of
" The Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania."

Sec. 2. That the said Institution shall be under the manage-
ment and government of a Board of Trustees, of whom there shall
be thirteen, and seven of whom shall be a quorum, competent to
perform the duties hereinafter authorized and required.

Sec 3. That the Governor, Secretary of the Commonwealth,
the President of the Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society,
and the Principal of the Institution, shall each be ex-officio a mem-
ber of the Board of Trustees, and they with Dr. Alfred L. El-
wyn, and Algernon S. Roberts of the City of Philadelphia, H. N.

OF PENNSYLVANIA. 21

McAllister, of the County of Centre, R. C. Walker, of the County
of Allegheny, James Miles, of the County of Erie, John Strohra,
of the County of Lancaster, A. 0. Hiester, of the County of Dau-
phin, William Jessup, of the County of Susquehanna, and Frede-
rick Watts, of the County of Cumberland, shall constitute the first
Board of Trustees; which said Trustees, and their successors in
office, are hereby erected and declared to be a body politic and cor-
porate in law, with perpetual succession, by the name, style and
title of the Farmers High School of Pennsylvania ; by which name
and title the said Trustees, and their successors, shall be able and
capable in law to take by gift, grant, sale or conveyance, by be-
quest, devise or otherwise, any estate in any lands, tenements and
hereditaments, goods, chattels or effects, and at pleasure to alien
or otherwise dispose of the same to and for the uses and purposes
of the said Institution: Provided, however, That the annual in-
come of the said estate, so held, shall at no time exceed twenty-five
thousand dollars; and the said Corporation shall by the same
name, have power to sue and be sued, and generally to do and
transact all and every business touching or concerning the premi-
ses, or which shall be necessarily incidental thereto, and to hold,
enjoy and exercise all such powers, authorities and jurisdiction as
are customary in the Colleges within this Commonwealth.

Sec. 4. That the Trustees shall cause to be made a seal, with
such device as they may think proper, and by and with which all
the deeds and diplomas, certificates and acts of the Institution shall
be authenticated, and they may, at their pleasure, alter the same.

Sec. 5. That at the first meeting of the Board of Trustees, the
nine named who are not ex-officio members, shall by themselves
and by lot, be divided into three classes, of three each, numbered
one, two and three. The appointment hereby made of class number
one, shall terminate on the first Monday of October, one thousand
eight hundred and fifty-six, number two on the first Monday of
October, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, and number
three on the first Monday of October, one thousand eight hundred
and fifty-eight; and upon the termination of the office of such
Directors, to wit : on the first Monday of October in every year,
an election shall be held at the Institution to supply their place,
and such election shall be determined by the votes of the mem-
bers of the Executive Committee of the Pennsylvania State Agri-
cultural Society, and the votes of three representatives duly chosen
by each County Agricultural Society in this Commonwealth, which
shall have been organized at least three months preceding the
time of election ; and it shall be the duty of the (said Board of
Trustees to appoint two of their number as judges, to hold the said
©lection, to receive and count the votes, and return the same to the

22 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

Board of Trustees, with their certificate of the number of votes
cast, and for whom ; whereupon the said Board shall determine who
have received the highest number of votes cast, and who are
thereby elected.

Sec. 6. That on the second Thursday of June, after the pas-
sage of this act, the Board of Trustees who are hereby appointed,
shall meet in Harrisburg, and proceed to the organization of the
institution, and selection of the most eligible site within the Com-
monwealth of Pennsylvania for its location, where they shall pur-
chase or obtain by gift, grant or otherwise, a tract of land con-
taining at least two hundred acres, and not exceeding two thousand
acres, upon which they shall procure such improvements and
alterations to be made, as will make it an Institution properly
adapted to the instruction of youth, in the art of farming, accord-
ing to the meaning and design of this act; they shall select and
choose a Principal for the said Institution, who with such scientific
attainment and capacity to teach as the Board shall deem necessary,
shall be a good practical farmer ; he with such other persons as shall
from time to time be employed as teachers, shall compose the faculty,
under whose control the immediate management of the Institution,
and the instruction of all the youth committed to its care, shall be
subject, however, to the revision and all orders of the Board of
Trustees ; there shall be a quarterly meeting of the Board of Trus-
tees at the Institution, and as much oftener as shall be necessary,
and as they shall determine ; the Board shall have power to pass all
such By-Laws, ordinances and rules as the good government of
the Institution shall require, and therein to prescribe what shall
be taught to, and what labor performed by the pupils, and gene-
rally to do and perform all such administrative acts as are usually
performed by and with the appropriate duty of a Board of Trus-
tees, and shall, by a Secretary of their appointment, keep a minute
of the proceedings and action of the Board.

Sec. 7. That it snail be the duty of the Board of Trustees, as
soon and as often as the exigencies of the Institution shall require,
in addition to the Principal, to employ such other professors, teach-
ers or tutors, as shall be qualified to impart to pupils under their
charge, a knowledge of the English language, Grammar, Geogra-
phy, History, Mathematics, Chemistry, and such other branches
of the natural and exact sciences, as will conduce to the proper
education of a Farmer ; the pupils shall themselves, at such proper
times and seasons as shall be prescribed by the Board of Trustees,
perform all the labor necessary in the cultivation of the Farm,
and shall thus be instructed and taught all things necessary to be
known by a Farmer, it being the design and intention of this act
to establish an Institution in which youth may be educated, so as to
fit them for the occupation of a Farmer.

OF PENNSYLVANIA. 23

Sec. 8. That the Board of- Trustees shall annually elect a
Treasurer, who shall receive and disburse the funds of the Insti-
tution, and perform such other duties as shall be required of him,
and from whom they shall take such security for the faithful per-
formance of his duty, as necessity shall require ; and it shall be
the duty of the said Board of Trustees, annually, on or before the
first of December, to make out a full and detailed account of the
operations of the Institution for the preceding year, and an ac-
count of all its receipts and disbursements, and report the same to
the Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society, who shall embody
said report in the annual report, which by existing laws, the said
Society is bound to make and transmit to the Legislature, on or
before the first Monday of January, of each and every year.

Sec. 9. That it shall be lawful for the Pennsylvania State
Agricultural Society to appropriate out of their funds to the object
of this act, a sum not exceeding ten thousand dollars, whenever
the same shall be required, and to make such further appropria-
tions annually, out of their funds, as will aid in the prosecution of
this object, and it shall be the duty and privilege of the said So-
ciety, at such times as they shall deem expedient by their com-
mittees, officers or otherwise, to visit the said Institution, and ex-
amine into the details of its management.

Sec. 10. That the Act to Incorporate the Farmers High School
of Pennsylvania, approved the thirteenth day of April, Anno
Domini, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, be and the
same is hereby repealed. HENRY K. STRONG,

Speaker of the House of Representatives.
WM. M. HIESTER,
Speaker of Senate.

Approved — The twenty-second day of February, Anno Domini,
one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five. JAS. POLLOCK.

(The above is the present law, with the simple excep-
tion of the time of holding the annual meeting of Dele-
gates, which by act of Legislature, approved May 20th,
1857, was changed to the first WednesdaWn September.
And a subsequent act providing that five members shall
constitute a quorum for the transaction of business.)

MEETING OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

The following members of the Executive Committee, met
at Harrisburg, April 17th, 1855 : Jas. Go wen, H. N. McAl-
lister, A. 0. Hiester, John Strohm, James Miles, Abraham
Mclllvain, Isaac G. McKinley, Thomas P. Knox, George

24 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

H. Bucher, William Bigler, David Mumma, J. S. Halde-
man, A. L. Elwyn, A. S. Roberts, J. P. Rutherford, and
R. C. Walker. At this meeting, a communication was
received from Gen. James Irvin, proposing to donate 200
acres of land, in Centre County, for the purpose of an
Agricultural School. The Secretary was directed to lay
this proposition, together with that from Judge Miles, of
Erie, with any others, that might be received, before the
Trustees of the Farmers High School, at their meeting
in June next; and with a hope of exciting emulation;
and inducing citizens from other parts of the State to
make similar offers. This order to the Secretary was pub-
lished in the leading Newspapers of the State.

ORGANIZATION OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES.

On the 14th of June following, the Board of Trustees
met at the office of the Pennsylvania State Agricultural
Society, at Harrisburg, and organized according to the
provision of the Act of Incorporation. (Page 20.) There
were present, Messrs. James Pollock, Governor, and A. G.
Curtin, Secretary of the Commonwealth, A. 0. Hiester,
Frederick Watts, H. N. McAllister, John Strohm, James
Miles, A. L. Elwyn, and Robert C. Walker.

SITES OFFERED.

The following proposals to donate and sell land for a
site, were made : James Miles to donate 200 acres, in Erie
County; Genl. James Irvin, to donate 200, in Centre
County; Elias Baker, to donate 200 in Blair County;
James Bailey, to sell 2000 acres in Perry County, and Geo.
A. Bayard, to sell 600 acres in Allegheny County. On
motion of H^hN. McAllister, Governor Pollock, Judge
Watts and Dr. Elwyn, were appointed a committee to ex-
amine the several sites offered.

At the next meeting of the Board, July 17th, 1855, at
Harrisburg, this committee made an elaborate report, sta-
ting that they had visited several sites offered for the lo-
cation of the college.

OF PENNSYLVANIA. 25

REPORT OF COMMITTEE TO EXAMINE "SITES.

General James Irvin had offered any one of three farms
of two hundred acres of good limestone land, with the pre-
emption right to two hundred additional acres, adjoining
any one of them within five years.

The two hundred acres offered by James Miles, were
situated about eighteen miles west of the city of Erie, be-
tween the railroad which bounds it on the south, and the
lake shore. The land was a sandy loam, highly fertile,
with about one hundred acres of cleared land, and the rest
with heavy timber; he would also give the pre-emption
right to any additional quantity of land, which may be
desired, at $60,00 per acre.

The estate of George Ai Bayard was situated on the
Youghiogheny River, about three miles from its mouth, and
eighteen miles from Pittsburgh. It consisted of 600 acres
of well-watered freestone land, worth $35.00 per acre.
Very extensive improvements had been made upon the
estate, including several dwelling-houses, and two large
barns. Mr. Bayard would sell on reasonable terms.

The two hundred acres offered by Elias Baker, were
situated in Blair County, on the Pennsylvania Railroad,
about two miles southwest of Altoona; all the land, ex-
cept about forty acres, was cleared and fenced, about sixty
acres (south of the Railroad) was of good freestone land,
and the balance (north of the Railroad) good slate land.
There were upwards of two hundred acres more in the.
tract that could be purchased at about $25.00 per acre. All
the land was finely watered.

The committee further stated, that they had just re-
ceived an offer of 200 acres of land, worth $60.00 per
acre, from Wm. H. Easton of Franklin County; also, that
in their examination of the land, they had been accompa-
nied by several members of the Board, of whose opinion
they had availed themselves, in viewing the several tracts
offered.

The committee close their report by saying, that although
any one of the several sites they had viewed would be eli-
gible, yet in view of the importance of the subject, and the
fact that the people of the state were not yet sufficiently

26 AGBICULTURAL COLLEGE

acquainted with their efforts, they did not then deem it
advisable to make a selection of any one of the sites offered.

The committee was then continued, and directed to exa-
mine such other sites as might be offered, and to report at
the next meeting of the Board. In order that all friends
of agricultural education over the state might have an op-
portunity to offer inducements to locate the college where
tbey wished it, the proceedings of the meeting were ordered
to be published in all the prominent papers of the state.

The Hon. Simon Cameron then stated that he thought
$10,000 could be raised in Dauphin County to purchase a
farm there for a site, and that to this end he would lead a
subscription with $1,000. Messrs. J. W. Patten and J.
Morrow, in behalf of the citizens of Blair county, offered
to purchase two hundred additional acres, adjoining the
two hundred offered by Colonel Baker, thus offering four
hundred acres, provided the school were located in Blair
county.

The meeting of the executive committee of the State
Agricultural Society also convened at this time in Harris-
burgh. On motion of H. N. McAllister, at this meeting, it
was Resolved, That the sum of $10,000 be appropriated by
the State Agricultural Society to the Farmers' High School
of Pennsylvania.

The third meeting of the Board of Trustees convened at
Harrisburg, September 12, 1855.

The Committee appointed to view sites for the location
of the college, reported that, since the last meeting of the
board, they had viewed three farms, offered by Mr. Easton,
of Franklin County; two of them, of about 200 acres each,
were situated on the Pittsburg turnpike, near the town of
Loudon, both good limestone land in a high state of im-
provement, and on the one nearest the town a never-fail-
ing spring of water. A third farm, between Loudon and
Mercersburg, of 246 acres limestone land in a high state of
improvement, was also offered.

The Committee also presented a letter just received from
David Blair, in which he offered to donate 200 acres, near
Shade Gap, on the road leading from Mount Union, on the
Pennsylvania Railroad, to Chambersburg, containing about

OF PENNSYLVANIA. 27

130 acres of cultivated land, the whole well watered, and
limestone quarries on it. In regard to the site in Centre
County, H. N. McAllister presented a paper in which he,
James Irvin and A. G. Curtin, pledged themselves in be-
half of Centre and Huntingdon Counties to donate the
sum of $10,000 for the purposes implied in the act of incor-
poration of the Farmers High School of Pennsylvania, pro-
vided the said site be accepted.

Mr. McFarlane and Elias Baker offered to donate 400
acres of land near Altoona, and to guaranty the sum of
$10,000 from the citizens of Blair County, provided this
site were accepted.

An offer was also made by the trustees of the estate of
Mr. Moore in Union County to sell 265 acres of land for a
site.

FINAL VOTE ON THE LOCATION OF THE SCHOOL.

After due consideration of all these offers, the Hon.
Fred. Watts, of Cumberland, offered the following resolu-
tion : — Resolved, that the adoption of the 'proposition of Qen.
James Irvin for the location of the Farmers High Sclwol of
Pennsylvania will best promote the interests of the institution,
and that the same is hereby adopted.

The question being on the adoption, Mr. Jas. Gowen
moved to strike out the name of General Irvin and insert
that of Elias Baker; not agreed to. Dr. Elwyn moved to
strike out the name of General Irvin and insert that of H.
Easton — not agreed to. Fred. Watts then moved that the
question be postponed, and that James Gowen, A. O.
Hiester and John Strohm be appointed a committee of
three to examine the propositions and determine which
should be accepted — not agreed to. Kobt. C. Walker then
moved to strike from the resolution the name of General
James Irvin and insert that of Geo. A. Bayard ; not agreed,
to. The question then recurring upon the original resolu-
tion, was decided in the affirmative.

The details of the selection of a site as just given are
made more full than would otherwise have been neces-
sary, in order to satisfy persons who may have an interest
in the subject, that the present site of the Agricultural Col-

28 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

lege of Pennsylvania was not selected without a full and
free opportunity for the friends of any other site to offer
inducements for its location and erection, and without the
claims thus presented being fairly and impartially considered.

SOLICITATION OF AID FROM THE STATE.

At a meeting of the Board of Trustees held January 4th,
1856, H. N. McAllister, A. 0. Hiester and Robt. C. Walker
were appointed a committee to solicit an appropriation (of
$50,000) from the Legislature then in session, for the
furtherance of the object of the act of Incorporation of
the Farmers High School of Pennsylvania.

PLANS FOR COLLEGE BUILDINGS.

At this meeting several plans for college buildings were
presented. One by H. N. McAllister, for the college build-
ing, and one by Fred. Watts for a barn, were adopted,
and H. N. McAllister, Fred. Watts, and James Miles were
appointed a building committee to contract for the con-
struction of the college buildings. Means were taken to
secure a principal and competent teachers, to open the
school as soon as the buildings were ready for the admis-
sion of pupils. The board also agreed to take 200 addi-
tional acres of land from Gen. James Irvin, making a farm
of 4 00 acres.

CONTRACT TO ERECT COLLEGE BUILDINGS.

On the 12th of May, 1856, the building committee
articled with Messrs. Turner & Natcher to construct the
College Buildings for the sum of $55,000, and the work
upon the building was at once commenced.

FIRST ANNUAL MEETING OF DELEGATES.

On the 6th of the following October, the board met for
the first time at the site of the College. The occasion was
that of the first annual meeting of delegates for the elec-
tion of trustees. The contract of Turner and Natcher was
approved by the board. Measures were taken to secure a
sum of nearly ($5,000) left by the will of the late Elliot
Cresson to the Farmers High School; and Messrs. F. Watts,
H. N. McAllister and J. Strohm, were appointed a com-

OF PENNSYLVANIA. , 29

mittee to lay the affairs of the institution before the next
Legislature.

APPROPRIATION BY THE STATE LEGISLATURE.

Accordingly, at the next Session, a bill to appropriate
),000 to the Farmers High School of Pennsylvania, was
placed in the hands of Colonel Gregg, at that time Senator
from that district. The committee also found an earnest,
influential advocate in the Hon. James T. Hale, of Centre
County.

Colonel Gregg at once espoused the cause of the bill with
all the earnestness of an advocate ; and, in conjunction with
Judge Hale and the committee, canvassed it thoroughly be-
fore the Legislature, and finally brought it to the test of a
vote by which it became a law, approved May 20th, 1857.

The Act in question appropriated $25,000 at once to the
Farmers High School, in view of $25,000 already obtained;
and appropriated an additional $25,000, provided a like
sum be raised by subscription. It further provides that
the annual meeting of delegates for the election of mem-
bers to the Board of Trustees be held on the first Wednes-
day of September.

At the 7th meeting of the Board held at Harrisburg the
18th of March, 1858, H. N. McAllister, of the Committee
appointed for this purpose, made a report upon the progress
of the Buildings under the contract, and of the state of the
farm.

The passage of the act of May, 1859, infused new con-
fidence into the movement. It placed $25,000 in the hands
of the Trustees at once, in addition to the $25,000 already
collected by subscription, and there was little doubt felt
that the other 25,000 could easily be raised, thus redeem-
ing the additional $25,000 from the Legislature, and making
a total of $100,000, at the disposal of the Trustees. With
the main College Buildings contracted for $55,000, there
seemed to be an additional surplus quite sufficient for erect-
ing out-buildings and putting the farm into proper order
for opening the college. At a meeting of the Board, July
2d, 1857, E. C. Humes was authorized to draw upon the
State Treasury for $25,000 in accordance with the act of
May 20.

30 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

A LARGE MEETING OF DELEGATES.

The annual meeting of delegates for the election of Trus-
tees assembled September 2d, 1857. There were dele-
gates present from Allegheny, Berks, Blair, Bucks, Cam-
bria, Chester, Clinton, Cumberland, Centre, Delaware, Erie,
Huntingdon, Juniata, Lancaster, Mifflin, Northumberland,
Perry, Schuylkill, Westmoreland, and Union. This meet-
ing was opened by the Hon. Jas. T. Hale, thanking the
audience for their attendance, and expressing a hope that
the Hon. President of the Board of Trustees would favor
them with some remarks upon the subject of the meeting,
whereupon Judge Watts arose and said, that observation
and reflection teach that men are classified by the amount
and quality of their education, and not by their calling.

That the merchants and manufacturers in the eastern
states, the professional men of the middle states, and the
planters of the Southern States, were the most influential
men in their respective states, because the best educated.
The importance of agriculture in Pennsylvania, and the
necessity of the agriculturist exerting a marked influence,
pointed out the necessity of agricultural schools, at which
to secure that education out of which this influence only
can grow. He dwelt upon the great benefits conferred
upon the agricultural interests, by the many agricultural
societies which have recently been founded; and urged the
necessity of building up the Farmers High School, as a
means of still further enlightening the farmer on the duties
of his calling, by affording a suitable course of instruction
for his sons, at prices commensurate with his means. After
alluding to the fact that the expense of an ordinary College
course was too great to be met by the generality of farmers,
he said:

" But the cost is by no means the greatest objection; for the effect
of this education upon the farmer's son in almost every case is, that
of utterly estranging him from, and unfitting him for, the safe and
healthful and normal pursuit of his father. The youth who returns
to the farm at home, after three or four years' study of books at col-
lege desks, and in purely literary society, finds utter uncongeniality
in the company of his own father and brothers ; his mind has been
turned into paths leading quite away from rural pursuits, and his hands

OF PENNSYLVANIA. 31

are untaught and unfitted to assist in, or direct the labors of the farm.
The moral effect of this common but sad result is equally disastrous
and pitiable both in father and son. It is a state of things which
must be cured: if not, it will act like a corrosive ulcer. We must
combine the cultivated intellect and social amenities of mental refine-
ment, with the strong practical usefulness and sound virtues of the
agriculturist, who giving the sweat of his brow receives from Pro-
vidence such bounties as are now stored around us in this building,*
and spread upon these tables for the daily support of all human life,
and who dispenses them to all other classes.

If these be not thus wedded, this great agricultural state of Penn-
sylvania must remain, as now, with the balance of influence and power
in the hands of comparatively few ; for I may be allowed to repeat,
•with no other desire than to contribute to the future prosperity of our
glorious Commonwealth, that the great body of our citizens, the great
agricultural body, have not the power and the influence which they
ought to have for the proper balance of power in our political and
social relations. Something must be done to increase their power —
how shall we do it ? Education will impart influence, but it must
be such education as will lead to the desired end ; it is self-evident
that it is no education unless it is a fit one. Science, art, and labor
must be combined. Here is our want. At present we have no suit-
able college in existence. Whatever may have been done in Europe
under the greater pressure of necessity we have no such institutions
as yet, to which we can have access.

Now the institution we are striving to establish, at the earliest
possible period, is intended to supply this great social, political,
moral, and economical want. And while it improves the mind of
the agriculturist, and trains his hands, it will do both at less expense
than a purely literary training can be obtained for. Thus, while
reducing costs very greatly, it will educate better and fit for every
business relation of practical life.

We estimate that $100 per annum will fully cover all expenses
for board and tuition, as we are instituting upon the farm different
branches of culture adapted for exercise, and to illustrate fully the
entire theory and practice of cultivation, and at the same time such
as will afford pleasant and profitable, moderate, regular, and varied
labor to the students. Provision will be made for ample and ex-
tensive mathematical training and engineering practice. All the
branches of Natural science will be fully illustrated and taught.
Moral and Social science, and all the arts of practical life, excluding
nothing but what is exclusively literary as the acquisition of the dead
and foreign languages. We have started — there must now be for
us no such word as fail. Our Legislature has done much to aid us ;

* At the dinner table in the barn.

I

32 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

we have much to do ourselves. Let us ask ourselves, each one of
us, how much do we owe to society, and especially to the great class
that forms its "basis. Let there be no adverse feelings founded on
local preference. What motive could there he to induce those who
examined and determined the locality of this school to do else than
right ? With the approval of my associates, I could gladly have
taken it into my own dear valley of Cumberland, but in the exercise
of a sound and clear judgment (I speak for all as an inconsiderable
one only) the Board having looked over all proposed lands and con-
sidered all circumstances, believed the one chosen to be the best.
It is possible that we were in fault, yet I have ever believed the
selection made combined more advantages than any other offered,
and I ask for myself and associates the credit at least of honest mo-
tives, and of all to consider how many of the most essential advan^
tages of soil, surface, exposure, healthfulness, and centrality, are
combined in the ground we have met upon.

For a great common good, and in a spirit of mutual confidence,
let personal feelings not enter into our consideration ; but let us all
agree to the conclusion that what is done is best. I must only
detain you with a brief detail of our financial strength. We have
received from our State Society $10,000, from citizens of Centre
County $10,000, from the State $25,000. From the estate of the
late Elliot Cresson $5,000, making in all $50,000. To complete
the buildings and open the institution we must have $50,000, and
this is provided for, if one half of the amount be raised by indi-
viduals. "We shall then have $100,000 with which we can then
start this institution into active and useful operation at a rate
of charge to each student of not over $100 per annum. All
the influence and industry we can exercise will go into the ac-
count, and if our judgment and management be approved, we
shall not be allowed in this great Commonwealth to fail of such
an object. The community understanding our aims, will not let
us fail. We must obtain the $25,000 by individual contribu-
tion, and I say for myself only because I am urged to say it, that
I will be one of ten to give $1,000 each towards making up that
amount."

The speaker took his seat amidst the approbation of his
auditors. Gen. James Irvin offered to be one of ten to sub-
scribe $1,000.

Hon. James Miles pledged $1,000 for Erie and Craw-
ford Counties. Hon. James Burnside thought Clinton
County would be good enough for $1,000, and Cambria for
$500. Hon. George Boal pledged Centre County for $1,000
in addition to the $10;000 already subscribed. General

OF PENNSYLVANIA. 33

Snodgrass pledged Allegheny County for $1,000. H. N.
McAllister offered to be one of twenty to give $500 each.
Judge Hale arose and said:

Centre County has raised §10,000, and one of her distinguished
citizens has given an equal value in land, and has just pledged
another $1,000, followed by other conditional pledges from other
of her citizens for yet another §1,500.

The President of this meeting, who has given so freely of his
valuable time and abilities to all the details of the enterprise at
the greatest sacrifice, has offered yet a sum of §1,000 : now cannot
we raise the balance of the sum wanted on the spot? I will pledge
myself to raise $500 more, if we can thus accomplish this. Let
us hear from all the counties represented. As to the location of
the school, it must necessarily be located somewhere. It has been
located here, and we are sensible of the advantages it brings to us,
and have contributed very nearly one-fourth of the entire estimate
of 100,000. Yet all other counties will have an equal right with
us to send pupils, and we feel that we have a right to ask other
counties to aid in the consummation of this great work of the
State."

Dr. J. R. Eshelman then pledged Chester County for
$500 ; John Strohm pledged $500 for Lancaster. Several
other pledges were given for all that could be done in other
counties.

FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES.

Unfortunately for the funds of the school many of the
above pledges were not redeemed, and the general depres-
sion of business which followed the financial panic of 1857,
together with the failure of crops in some of the counties,
almost put a stop to raising subscriptions. In the mean-
time, the work on the college buildings was progressing,
and the constant drafts on the treasury warned the busi-
ness committee that some effort must be made to obtain
subscriptions.

At two successive meetings of the Board at this time,
December, 1857, and March, 1858, there wasjiot a quorum
of members present, and the business committee were to
a certain extent left to their own resources in order to sup-
ply the constant demands upon the Treasury.

34 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

CONTRACTOR UNABLE TO FULFIL HIS CONTRACT.

It now became more and more apparent that the con-
tractors would be unable to comply with the conditions of
their contract, as it was evident that they had taken it at
a price that would do little more than meet half the ex-
pense involved in complying with the contract, and being
without means beyond those afforded by the Trustees, and
the latter having an empty Treasury to draw upon, the
prospects of the school were anything but flattering.

At this time there is no doubt the work would have
been suspended, and the Pennsylvania Agricultural College
would soon, like a great many others in the United States,
have been kn©wn only by the half finished works that
marked the spot where it was intended to stand, had it
not been for the indomitable perseverance and unremit-
ting labor of the business committee, and more especially
of H. N. McAllister, the local Trustee, in looking after its
affairs.

In addition to the $10,000 that the latter gentleman
guarantied for Centre County, in case the College were
located upon the farm of Gen. James Irvin, he received
nearly $6,000 by subscription from others in the county, to
which he added $500 from his own pocket. He also visited
a number of other counties, called meetings, and raised
collections himself, or secured the services of others in doing
so.

During all this time the general control of the work on
the college buildings devolved upon him, and to meet the
demand of the contractor he was obliged to advance several
thousand dollars from his own pocket, trusting to raise it
by subscriptions. The time to perform all this labor for
the school was taken from a professional life already over-
crowded with professional duties. It was done gratuitously,
and all the expenses involved in travelling to collect money,
hold meetings, or do other labor for the school were paid
from his own pocket. It has been remarked that if for
no other purpose, it were sufficient to locate the college in
Centre County to secure the aid of a laborer so efficient and
self-sacrificing in its behalf as the present local trustee.
The thirteenth meeting of the Board of the Trustees con-

OF PENNSYLVANIA. 35

vened at the Farm School on the 16th of June, 1858.
There were present Messrs. McAllister, Eyre, Hiester, Miles,
Elwyn, and Watts, President. The President, as Chairman
of the Business Committee, reported that they had con-
tracted with General Irvin for the additional 200 acres
of land adjoining the 200 he had donated. The commit-
tee further reported upon the progress of the building,
stating the impossibility of the contractors being able to
finish it. Whereupon they were vested, by the board,
with power to act as the emergency might demand in order
to secure the erection of the building.

H. N. McAllister, having been appointed by the Presi-
dent to solicit donations, reported that Centre County had
subscribed $5,769 64, but that a part of this was required
to make up the $10,000 which he, with Messrs. Curtin
and Hale, had paid over as the subscription of Centre'
County in order to secure the location of the College; he,
however, expressed his willingness to allow this balance
on the $10,000 to remain unpaid, that the entire sum just
collected, might be made available for securing an equal
amount from the state, in accordance with the act of ap-
propriation of 1857, provided that the amount yet due them
from the Centre County subscription, be paid from other
subscriptions, that might be obtained after all the money
available from the State was obtained. This proviso
was approved by the Board. The financial affairs of the
institution now presented the most serious problem for the
solution of the Board.

EMBARRASSMENT OF THE BOARD.

The funds were exhausted, the contractors were about to
fail, and the work of the basement walls not yet completed,
while the country was prostrated, under the influence of
the financial crisis of the preceding year. It was resolved
to present an address to the people of the State, setting
forth the financial difficulties of the Board, and to appoint
suitable persons to solicit donations from the people ; and to
meet the emergencies of the present, it was resolved to raise
$5,000 upon the individual note of some of the members of
the Board. Under such circumstances many corporations

36 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

would have at once broken up in despair, but the trustees
of the Farm School, determined not to yield to these diffi-
culties, made arrangement for the admission of pupils on
the assumption that the building must he prepared for them.
The conditions of admission and course of instruction were
settled upon, and it is not a little remarkable, that at that
time, and under these difficulties, and relying wholly upon
their judgment of what the college should be, but without
any experience as to how it would meet the wants of the
Agricultural Community, they laid down the general plan
of operation for it, which has since been followed out, and
is now proving successful. It was decided to carry up
about one-third of the building, and complete it for the
admission of about 100 students, leaving the other two-
thirds with only the basement walls up.

PROSPECT OF FAILURE.

At this period, such seemed to be the hopelessness of
completing the building that those who did not appreciate
the importance of doing so, nor understand the devotion of
the Trustees, and more especially of the building commit-
tee, to the cause they had espoused, did not think it ever
could be completed; and their policy of commencing a
building sufficiently large to organize an Agricultural
College was severely condemned, while a small school
with an elementary course of instruction was pointed out as
what could and should have been founded. To add to the
discouragement of the members of the Board, who were
determined the work should not stop, one of the most pro-
minent members who had labored hard for the cause from
the beginning resigned, but his place was supplied at the
next annual meeting of the delegates, September 1st, 1858.

At the fifteenth meeting of the Board, December 8th, 1858,
it was resolved that the school be opened for students on
the 16th of February, 1859, and measures were taken to
apprize the people of the Commonwealth of the fact, as
also of the terms and form of admission. As already re-
marked, it had become evident that Turner and Natcher
would be unable to comply with the conditions of the con-
tract. The work of preparing the building had therefore

OF PENNSYLVANIA, N 37

passed into the hands of the Building Committee, and they
were urging it on with all possible speed to have the build-
ing ready for pupils at the appointed time ; and to meet
the expense involved, in going on with the work, five of the
Trustees subscribed $500 from their own pockets, which
enabled them to draw a corresponding amount from the
State, and they further authorized the President of the
Board, to secure by loan an amount sufficient to finish and
furnish the part to be prepared for the pupils.

OPENING SCHOOL.

At the appointed time, February 16th, 1859, the school
was opened under the control of the following Faculty and
Professors.

Wm. G. Waring, who had been superintending the farm,
garden, and nursery for some- time previous was now ap-
pointed General Superintendent of the College, and Pro-
fessor of Horticulture; S. Baird, Professor of Mathematics;
K. C. Allison, Professor of English Literature ; J. S. Whit-
man, A. M., Prof, of Natural Science. Prof. Baird resigned
May 18th, 1859, and the Board at that time assembled,
appointed Prof. David Wilson in his stead. Over 100 pupils
had engaged places, and sixty-nine were present on the
first day of opening; during the session 119 students were
entered, though there were never more than about 100
present at any one time, owing to the dismission and ex-
pulsion of some and the withdrawal of others. The school
was opened under innumerable difficulties and disadvan-
tages. The buildings were only partially finished, and in
the absence of the intended dining-room and kitchen a
board shantee, which could neither be kept warm in cold
nor dry in wet and stormy weather, was used to cook and
eat in. Proper apartments for museums, laboratories, and
recitation rooms were wanting. The farm was yet rough,
and the lumber and materials for mason and brick work
for the completion of the building, were piled round in
shapeless masses on all sides of the latter, rendering it
almost impossible to get about it, and presenting a most
forlorn aspect to the students, who first entered the college,
4

38 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

through the well tramped mud of the breaking up of the
winter frosts.

The limited number of students that could be admitted
did not allow of the employment of a sufficient number of
professors, teachers, and assistants to admit of a proper
division of labor among them, and hence an efficient
organization of the institution was not possible. The un-
precedented nature of the experiment made it necessary to
intrust it to inexperienced hands; and although every pre-
caution was taken to admit none but students of the very
highest character, yet unfortunately, experience soon
proved that this flock was not without its " black sheep."
Add to all this the general sentiment of superficial ob-
servers, that the building never could be finished, and the
unhappy state of feeling produced in the minds of many in
consequence of pecuniary losses they sustained by the
failure of the first contractor, and bear in mind the state of
the finances of the Board of Trustees as already pointed
out, and we have some of the difficulties encountered by
the Farm School on first coming into existence.

FACULTY FOR 1860.

At the nineteenth meeting of the Board of Trustees,
held at the College, December 7th, 1859, the following
faculty were nominated, and instructions given to pre-
pare the first annual catalogue.

EVAN PUGH, Ph. D. & F. C. S., President.

DAVID WILSON, A. M., Vice President.

WM. G. WARING, General Superintendent of the Hor-
ticultural Department.

J. S. WHITMAN, A. M., Professor of Botany.

R. C. ALLISON, A. M., Professor of English Literature.

In view of the financial affairs of the Board, and the
unfinished state of the building, the Rev. Thomas P.
Hunt was appointed to solicit donations for the College.
Mr. Hunt entered upon his duties with characteristic
earnestness, but it was soon found that the country had not
yet sufficiently recovered from the financial crisis of 1857,

OF PENNSYLVANIA. 39

to make it possible to raise money in this way, and the
project was soon abandoned.

The Session of 1859 closed about the middle of De-
cember, and the Trustees then thought that the success
which had attended the effort under the difficulties, met
in making it, would induce the Legislature to afford means
to complete the buildings. Accordingly, a bill asking
money for this purpose was placed in the hands of one of
the members, to be brought before the House of Repre-
sentatives. The bill, however, never reached its second
reading, and the College, incumbered with debt, and its
building unfinished, was left to struggle through another
year, dependent in part for its existence upon the energy
and enterprise and liberality of those who had already
sacrificed so much to bring it thus far.

The Session of 1860 was inaugurated with a full school,
while several who applied from other states, could not be
admitted. The increased experience of the faculty in
managing it, and the greater experience of the students
in performing their duties, gave additional hope of the
ultimate success of the College, if its buildings only could
be completed; on the other hand it became equally evi-
dent that if they were not completed, the school must
stop, and all the property accumulated be sacrificed to
meet its debts.

FINAL APPEAL TO THE STATE LEGISLATURE.

Successive appeals to private individuals had failed to
secure the funds required. Being a State Institution, and
not a denominational school, it had not the advantage of
being able to interest any special sect in its favor. But on
the other hand being an Agricultural School, devoted to
the Agricultural interests of an Agricultural State, and
having originated in an effort of the State Agricultural
Society, and having been aided in its origin by State ap-
propriations, it became most appropriately an object for
State patronage, therefore, at a meeting of the Board of
Trustees, held at the College, December 5th, 1860, it was

Resolved, That the sum of $50,000 was necessary to

40 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

finish the College Buildings, and that an application be
made to the Legislature at its approaching session to make
an appropriation of that sum for this purpose.

Measures were at once taken to secure the passage of
an Act, making this appropriation. In the Senate, the
interests of the school would be ably represented by Colonel
Gregg, who had labored so efficiently for the passage of
the first appropriation, and in the House, where the great-
est difficulty was anticipated, the College was fortunate in
having the aid of the local member, Wm. C. Duncan,
whose intelligent appreciation of the necessities of agri-
cultural practice, and the financial difficulties of the In-
stitution, made him an able advocate in its favor.

A few days after the close of the Session of 1860, the
bill to appropriate $50,000, was read in place by Wm.
C. Duncan, in the House of Kepresentatives, and referred
to the Committee of Ways and Means. The Trustees of
the College appeared before that Committee, and stated
the aims, objects, financial difficulties, and necessities of
the School. After the usual delays and hinderances com-
mon to legislation, the committee rendered a unanimous
report in favor of the bill, and it only remained to bring
it up for a second reading, to test the feeling of the House
upon its merits.

In the meantime, Mr. Duncan had espoused the cause
of the bill with an earnestness, and efficiency of action,
and honesty of purpose which satisfied all its friends, that
they were very fortunate in being able to intrust it to
his hands. His honesty and uprightness of character,
and personal acquaintance with all the leading friends of
the school, and his knowledge of its necessity were suffi-
cient guarantees to his fellow members, that the money
asked for was needed for the purpose stated, and not for
aggrandizement of individual or local interests.

Several of the County Agricultural Societies sent in
letters and resolutions to the Representatives, urging the
passage of the bill, while prominent friends of agricultu-
ral reform, from all parts of the State, either by letters
to members in the Legislature, or by. visiting Harrisburg

OF PENNSYLVANIA. 41

and by talking with them themselves, advocated the passage
of the bill, and the political press, without regard to party,
with singular unanimity united with the agricultural press
in urging the claims of the bill upon the Representatives
of the people of our great Agricultural State. The bill
was finally brought to its second reading, when it passed
with an overwhelming majority. A vote to suspend the
rules which forbid the reading of the same bill twice in
the same day, was carried and

The bill was read the third time, and thus passed the
House.

Col. Gregg had always assured the Trustees that if
the bill passed the lower House, he would have no diffi-
culty in securing its passage through the Senate, — there-
fore, a few days after it passed the House, it passed the
Senate, and received the signature of the Governor, and
became a law.

Thus a great Agricultural State was saved the disgrace
of allowing an Agricultural College it had attempted to
found, to break up in the act of being founded, and $150,
000 worth of property that was collected for this purpose,
was saved from being sacrificed, and on the other hand,
our old Commonwealth has succeeded in bringing the first
Agricultural School in the United States into successful
operation.

Amongst those not members of the House who con-
tributed to this result, the name of Hon. James T. Hale
deserves especial mention as having by his great influence
as a public man, and a member of the Board of Trustees,
done much for the passage of the bill; as also did all the
members of the Board, and most particularly the business
committee, who were prepared at all times to leave their
own pressing duties as professional men at home, to attend
to the advocacy of the bill while before the Legislature.

The bill passed the Senate on the 10th of April, 1861.
Fort Sumter was bombarded about this time, and the
country was in the midst of the excitement consequent
thereon .

The Board met at the school, May 1st, 1861, and not-
withstanding the disturbed state of the country, caused

42 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

by the rebellion, determined to proceed at once to the
completion of the building.

COMPLETION OF THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS.

To this end, Messrs. Watts, McAllister and Pugh were
appointed a committee to examine the plans for the build-
ing, and to make such modifications of them, as might
seem advisable, and to take measures to have the walls up
and the building roofed by the first of the following No-
vember.

The committee at once advertised for sealed proposals
to do the whole, or any part of the work, of putting up
the building.

On opening the proposals thus obtained, that of George
W. Tate of Bellefonte, was considered the most reasonable,
and the committee at once articled with him to complete
the entire building, excepting some items specified, for the
sum of $41,500 — the building to be under roof by the first
of November, 1861, and to be entirely completed by the
first of December, 1862.

The work of erecting the building was at once com-
menced, and has been steadily progressing up to the
present time, September, 1862.

THE THIRD SESSION.

The third session of the College was opened under pecu-
liarly unfavorable circumstances. The country was in
that ominous calm that preceded the storm of rebellion,
which has since broken upon it. The work of finishing
the College had been so long delayed, that the public began
to doubt the probability of its being finished at all, and it
was evident to all, if the buildings were not finished, the
School must go down.

Many doubted its ability to survive the third session,
and some parents even hesitated to pay money in advance
for tuition, lest it should be lost by the school being broken
up. There were, however, many earnest friends of the
movement, who never doubted even, at this time, the
ultimate success of the school, and the timely action of the
Legislature tended to restore the confidence of those who

OF PENNSYLVANIA. 43

had before doubted. But the result of this inauspicious
opening of the college was that for the first time it was not
filled with students, although eighty-eight were recorded
in the third annual catalogue, published at the close of the
session.

This session will always be interesting to the students
of the college as being that at the close of which the first
class was graduated. This was also the first class that
graduated at an Agricultural College in the United States,
and they graduated upon a higher scientific educational
standard than is required at any other Agricultural College
in the world. They had completed their course in three
years, owing to their having entered the third class the first
year. In 1858, the class had fifty-five students in it, and
in 1861 it was reduced to seventeen, and only eleven of
these completed their course, passed their examination,
and took the degree of Bachelor of Scientific Agriculture.
The following are the names.

James Miles, Jr., Erie Co.; A. C. Church, Luzerne Co.;
J. W. Eckman, Lebanon ; Samuel Holliday, Erie Co. ; E.
P. McCormick, Clinton Co.; M. S. Lytle, Huntingdon;
John N. Banks, Juniata; J. D. Isett, Huntingdon; L. C.
Troutman, Philadelphia; C. A. Smith, Berks; C. E. Trout-
man, Philadelphia.

The present session was opened on the 19th of February,
1862, and is now more than half completed ; the college is
full, notwithstanding the disturbed state of the country,
and all its affairs are working more satisfactorily than
they have ever done before.

CHANGE OF NAME.

The name " Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania,"
originated partly in a feeling that farmers might be pre-
judiced against the word "college" as that of a place where
boys only contracted idle habits, and partly with the idea of
founding a small institution, with a limited course of instruc-
tion, similar to the Agricultural Schools of Europe, which
are subordinate to the Agricultural Colleges there.

But the school, on being organized, adopted a course of
instruction in mathematics and the natural sciences, more

/

44 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

extensive than that in any Agricultural College of Europe,
and a correspondingly longer time devoted -to study was
required for graduating. Its organization had been upon
a collegiate basis from the beginning, and the Trustees only
awaited the time in which they would be able to complete
its buildings, to change its name. Therefore, at the soli-
citation of the faculty, and on the recommendation of the
President of the Board of Trustees, H. N. McAllister made
application to the Centre County Court, at its spring
session, 1862, for a change of name, to the "Agricultural
College of Pennsylvania." The Court granted the request,
and the name as changed was approved by the Board at
its next meeting convened at Harrisburg, May 6th, 1862.
At this meeting it was resolved that a committee of three*
be appointed to prepare a history of the origin of the Ag-
ricultural College of Pennsylvania, as also to state its aims,
object, progress, and present condition and prospects. In
accordance with this resolution, the present pamphlet has
been prepared.

The history of the College here closes in the events of
the active present to which attention will next be drawn.
The secret of its success, it will have been seen, is to be
found in the indomitable perseverance of a small' number
of public-spirited men, who were determined it should not
fail.

As shown by the foregoing historical sketch, the Agri-
cultural College of Pennsylvania has been in operation for
four years. Its organization and means of accomplishing
the object for which it was founded, have been very im-
perfect, owing to unfinished buildings and want of funds.
Yet it has received a degree of patronage unprecedented in
the history of Agricultural Colleges. It has been filled
with students every session, except that of 1861, and many
have applied from other states, who could not be admitted.
With this success amidst the difficulties of the past, there
can be no doubt of its ultimate success in the future, now
that its • college buildings are completed and the Agricul-
tural College bill has passed Congress.

* This Committee consisted of the Hons. Fred. Watts and A. 0. Hiester, with
myself. It is due to these gentlemen, to state that their professional duties pre-
vented them from giving special attention to the work, and, therefore, for any in-
accuracies or imperfections in it, I alone am responsible. E. Pugh.

OF PENNSYLVANIA. 45

#bfcct 0i tlte f tt^tituttott.

After what has already been said it would seem superflu-
ous to dwell here upon the object of this institution, yet a
few words in detail, may throw light upon what has been
said. The Agricultural College of Pennsylvania has for
its object, to associate a high degree of intelligence with the
practice of Agriculture and the industrial arts, and to seek
to make use of this intelligence in developing the agricul-
tural and industrial resources of the country, and pro-
tecting its interests. It proposes to do this by several
means.

1st. As & purely educational institution, its course of in-
struction is to include the entire range of the Natural
Sciences ; but will embrace most especially those that have*
a practical bearing upon the every day duties of life, in
order to make the student familiar with the things immedi-
ately around him, and with the powers of nature he employs,
and with the material through the instrumentality of which,
under the blessing of Providence, he lives and moves and
has his being: and since agriculture more than any other
of the industrial arts, is important to man, and since for the
complete elucidation of its principles more scientific know-
ledge is required than for all other industrial arts combined,
it follows that this should receive by far the highest degree
of attention. The course of instruction is thorough, so
that it hot only affords the student the facts of science,
but it disciplines his mind to habits of thought, and en-
bles him fully to comprehend the abstract principles in-
volved in the practical operations of life. In doing this it
is not deemed possible to educate every agriculturist, arti-
san, mechanic, and business man in the state, but to send
out a few students educated in the college course that they,
by the influence of precept and example, may infuse new
life and intelligence into the several communities they
enter. A single individual who is thoroughly educated in
the principles and the practice of an art, followed by a com-
munity, will often exert a more salutary influence upon
the practice of this art, by the community, than would re-

46 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

suit from sending the whole community to a school of lower
order than that which he attended. A single practical
school of the highest order in Paris (the Ecole Poly technique)
during the last generation made France a nation celebrated
alike for profound philosophers, great statesmen, able ge-
nerals and military men, and civil engineers. If one high
school is established, subordinate schools affording the
elementary education of the latter, will follow in due time.

2d. As a Practical Institution the Agricultural College
of Pennsylvania has adopted the fundamental principle,
that whatever is necessary for man to have done, it is
honorable for man to do, and that the grades of honor at-
taching to all labor, are dependent upon the talent, the care
and fidelity exhibited in performing it. It is further con-
sidered essential as a part of a student's education that he be
taught the practical application, in the field and laboratory,
of the principles he studies in the class-room ; and manual
labor is also necessary for the preservation of health, and
the maintenance of habits of industry. An incidental, but
not unimportant result of the operation of these principles
is a reduction of the cost of tuition by the value of the
labor, so that the college can take students at the present
very low rates of admission.

All students without regard to pecuniary circumstances,
are therefore obliged to perform manual labor as an essen-
tial part of the college education and discipline and train-
ing. In these respects consists a most essential difference
between the idea associated with manual labor at this
college, and that of all other attempts made heretofore to
combine manual labor with study. Instead of the idea
of poverty and want being associated with those who labor,
that of laziness, worthlessness, and vagabondry is asso-
ciated with those who refuse to work efficiently, and the
experience of the institution has already most assuredly
shown that no young man, of whom there is any hope for
future usefulness and efficiency in life at all, is insensible
to the disgrace which thus attaches to lazy vagabonds who
will work only as they are watched, and cheat their fellow
students by refusing to do their share of the labor assigned

OF PENNSYLYANIA. 47

them; and nothing is more conclusively settled than that
those students who are the most studious and industrious
in class, work the most efficiently and are the most trust-
worthy in the performance of their daily three hours' work.

3d. As cm Experimental Institution, the Agricultural
College of Pennsylvania has an unbounded fielc| for labor.
The principles of Agricultural science, which shall ulti-
mately constitute the subject of instruction in its class-
rooms, are as yet only very imperfectly developed, and so
great is the labor, expense, and time involved in making
scientific agricultural experiments, that as yet little has
been done in this direction. In the embarrassed condition
of the finances of the college, it has not been possible to
employ more scientific aid than was absolutely necessary
to maintain a proper degree of efficiency in the educational
and practical departments, nor could the other expenses re-
quisite for extended scientific investigation be met with
the means heretofore at the disposal of the Board; a few ex-
periments upon the manufacture, preservation, and use of
manures for the growth of crops, have, however, been in-
augurated, while corresponding initiatory steps have been
taken to experiment in other departments. It is most
earnestly to be hoped that the recent appropriation of public
lands by Congress to the state for agricultural purposes will
afford means for the development of this department of the
institution. The development of no other department
would yield richer and more lasting results, or would confer
more substantial benefit upon agricultural practice than
this. It must not, however, be supposed that these results
will manifest themselves at once, or that they will pay as
experiments are being made : as well might the farmer ex-
pect to reap his crop the day he sows his grain. They will,
however, ultimately pay a thousand fold, as have the prac-
tical application of the sciences of electricity, heat and
optics, in the present day, paid for the half century of ap-
parently unpractical, purely scientific investigations that
led to the results now obtained through* them.

4th. As a means of protecting the industrial interests of the
State, and most especially the agricultural interest, from the
sale of bad or worthless or too high priced material (as

48 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES.

manures, seeds, plants, and implements used in agricultural
practice.) The only efficient means of accomplishing this
object is to diffuse a higher degree of intelligence, and a
more extended scientific knowledge amongst farmers : for so
long as they are unacquainted with the principles of agri-
cultural science, there will be quacks and impostors, and
ignorant empiricists, who will prevail on them to in-
vest at least a little money in some new manure, seed,
plants or other things, in the hope of realizing the large gain
from it, that they are told will follow its use. Farmers
have satisfactory means of testing agricultural implements,
and they also can test seeds and plants with a good de-
gree of satisfaction, but their methods of testing manures,
chemical salts, guanoes, phosphates, poudrettes and other
similar articles are very imperfect, and hence we find that
the market is filled with worthless or very high priced
manures, such as the farmer never would purchase, if he
knew their composition and real value. A beginning has
already been made towards making known the character of
some of these manures, and although it is not expected that
such work can be accomplished without opposition from
parties interested in their sale, there is no doubt that before
long all the bad manures will be driven from the market, and
good ones, better and cheaper than the best and cheapest
now sold, will take their place. In order to hasten this time
farmers are requested and particularly urged to purchase no
high priced artificial manures without having a legal gua-
rantee with it, that it shall contain a specified amount of va-
luable matter, equal in value to what is paid for the manure.

It will require some years to fully develop and perfect
all these departments, but the success which has thus far
already attended the undertaking, and the progress that has
already been made, afford the most satisfactory reason for
hope that all that was anticipated by the founders of the
institution, and much more, will ultimately be realized in it.

THE COLLEGE

AS IT WILL BE IN OPERATION NEXT YEAR, 1863.

§uMmpt

The main college building is a stately and substantial
edifice constructed of a silicious magnesian limestone of ex-
cellent quality for building purposes. It consists of a cen-
tral part and two wings connected with the latter by cur-
tains. The central part and the wings facing on the same
line, 234 feet long in front, and the central part resting on
54 feet of the front line, and extending back 130 feet, the
two wings each resting on 42 feet of the front line, and ex-
tending back 81 feet. "While the two curtains each occupy
48 feet on a line parallel to the front line, but ten feet
back from it, the curtains extend back 56 feet. The
building has five stories above a commodious basement.
Each story has a large hall running from one end to the
other, parallel with the front line, and extending through
the middle of the curtains. From this hall, and at right
angles with it, three halls extend back, one on the middle
line of the central part, and one in each end wing; on each
side of these halls, doors opens into dormitories, recitation-
rooms, museums, &c. The entire building embraces 165
dormitories, ten by eighteen square and nine to eleven feet
high ; a library room, twenty-four by forty-six; geological and
mineralogical museum, twenty- four by forty-six ; anatomical
museum, twenty-six by thirty-six; museum of agricultural
productions, twenty-four by twenty; chemical laboratory
for beginners, in basement twenty-four by fifty-six, and two
laboratories on the first story, each twenty by forty, for more
advanced students ; two lecture rooms, each twenty-six by
thirty-four feet; four recitation rooms, each twenty by
thirty-four feet; and several smaller rooms for apparatus for
special scientific investigations, and for store rooms; also a
large room eighty feet long and twenty-eight feet wide for

50 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

a chapel, arid two rooms, each fifty-six feet long and twenty
wide, for society halls ; and the entire back central part,
forty-eight feet wide and eighty feet long, on first story, for
kitchen and dining-room, and a room on the first story
twenty by thirty-six feet, for an elementary or preparatory
department, with an adjoining recitation-room, fifteen by
twenty feet. The basement is mainly to be devoted to coal
and hot-air furnaces, of which there will be sixteen of the
largest size, from which heated air is conveyed in separate
flues to every room in the building. All the rooms are also
ventilated by flues extending to the top of the building
from each room. The basement also contains the laboratory
abova noted, in addition to store-rooms, bake-house, and
kitchen for culinary department, and three other laborato-
ries for the rougher kinds of scientific work. The above, in
addition to two reception parlors, and commodious apart-
ments for one professor with family, and for the family of
the culinary department, constitute the extent of internal
arrangement of the buildings. For commodiousness, com-
pleteness of detail, and stability of construction these build-
ings are not equalled by the buildings of any Agricultural
College in the world.

The other buildings embrace,

1st. An excellent double-decked barn, fifty -nine by
seventy-five feet, and constructed upon the most approved
plan, with wagon shed, corn crib, water cisterns, &c.

2d. A large hog pen, with a granary over it, twenty-two by
eighty-three feet, including also a complete slaughter-house.

3d. A blacksmith shop, twenty by twenty-eight feet, with
all the appliances for doing smith work.

4th. A carpenter shop and tool house, sixteen by forty-
four feet.

5th. Wash house. This building is sixteen by forty feet,
situated near the barn, and is fitted up for washing the
students' clothes.

6th. Two frame dwelling-houses, one twenty-eight by
twenty-eight feet, now occupied by the carpenter and Su-
perintendent of the washing department, and the other,
thirty-two by forty -four, occupied by the professor of botany;
in connexion with the latter house is a small green-house,
with choice native and foreign plants.

OF PENNSYLVANIA. 51

(E>mxm fit ^tufe

The full course embraces four years, but students can
enter any part of the course dependent upon their degree of
advancement.

The first year the Student studies Arithmetic, Ele-
mentary Algebra, Horticulture, Elementary Anatomy and
Physiology, Physical Geography and Elementary Astro-
nomy, English Grammar and Composition, Elocution, His-
tory, Practical Agriculture and the details of management
on the College Farm. Students, who have mastered the
common school branches, will be prepared to enter the
classes of this year. In order to be fully prepared for it,
they are advised to pay particular attention to Grammar,
Geography, Reading, Writing, Spelling and Arithmetic.

Second year — Advanced Algebra and Geometry, Gene-
ral Chemistry, Vegetable Anatomy and Physiology, Zoo-
logy and Veterinary, Geology, Paleontology, Practical Agri-
culture and Horticulture, Logic and Rhetoric. Students
who are sufficiently far advanced in Algebra, Geometry
and English Grammar, are admitted to this class, without
respect to the other studies of the first year.

Third year — Surveying, Navigation, Levelling, Drafting
with the use of Instruments, Analytical Geometry, Trigono-
metry, Elementary Calculus, Natural Philosophy, Chemi-
cal Analysis, Veterinary Surgery, Entomology, Agricultu-
ral Botany, Practical Agriculture and Pomology, Political
and Social Economy. Students who have mastered Davies'
Legendre and Trigonometry, and who possess a corre-
sponding degree of knowledge of the English branches
generally, and who have gone through a good academical
text book course of Natural Science, are admitted to this
class.

Fourth year. — Analytical Geometry, Differential and
Integral Calculus, Engineering, Drafting, Mechanical Draw-
ing, Quantitative Chemical Analysis, Veterinary Phar-
macy, Gardening, Agricultural accounts and Farm Ma-
nagement, Moral and Intellectual Philosophy.

The ability to enter this year's courses, is dependent so

52 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

much on the Students having gone through the studies of the
preceding year, and the latter being peculiar to an Agri-
cultural College, of which there are no others in the coun-
try, no students prepared to enter it are likely to apply.
Students who successfully complete this course of studies,
and pass a satisfactory examination, and prepare a disser-
tation of not less than fifteen pages of foolscap paper, upon
some scientific or literary subject, (if scientific, it must em-
brace an original investigation) approved by the faculty,
and whose general standing in the school shall have b' °n
good, shall upon the recommendation of the faculty, have
the degree of Bachelor of Scientific and Practical Agricul-
ture, B. S. A. conferred upon them by the Board of Trus-
tees of the College.

Fifth year. — Students who after having taken the de-
gree of B. S. A. shall devote three years to Practical Agri-
culture, or to any intellectual pursuit or profession, shall
take the degree of Master of Scientific or Practical Agri-
culture, M. S. A., or, if they remain another year in the
Institution, and devote their time to special investigation,
they can take this degree at the terminatien of the year.

Private Laboratories with means for investigation, will
be fitted up for graduates of this or any other College, in
which to pursue prolonged, special, scientific investigation.
Graduates of Literary Colleges, who may only have pur-
sued an ordinary text book course in science, and who wish
to devote some time more especially to science, in connex-
ion with agricultural practice, can take any part of the
above course, or devote themselves to scientific investiga-
tion with the graduates of the fifth year, at the same time
they are familiarizing themselves with the details of agri-
cultural practice on the farm.

SCIENTIFIC EXCURSIONS.

The valley and neighboring mountains afford rare oppor-
tunities for botanical study ; and for Physical Geography,
Paleontology and Geology. This district is unsurpassed

OF PENNSYLVANIA. 53

by any other in the country. The great Synclinal and
Anticlinal Palaeozic waves east of the Alleghenies, are
here shown in every variety of position and angle of inclina-
tion, while good outcrops of nearly all the subdivisions of the
palrczoic rocks from the lowest to the coal measure, are to be
seen. Frequent excursions are made with classes to observe
them.

Mathematics. — A transit instrument of first quality for
field work, ordinary surveying apparatus, with compass, for
the use of Students, and Mathematical figures and forms for
illustrating Geometrical and Crystallographic principles.

Natural Philosophy. — Large Electrical Machine, Air-
Pumps, Magnetic Machine, Galvanic Batteries, an exten-
sive collection of apparatus for illustrating the principles
of Optics, Statics, Dynamics, Mechanics, Pneumatics, &c.,
and opportunities are offered for Students learning to use
this apparatus themselves.

Chemistry. — A large collection of apparatus adapted to
the lecture room and class recitations, for illustrating prin-
ciples by experiments; also, a large Chemical Laboratory
for beginners, and two other smaller Laboratories, each
affording room for twenty-four more advanced Students,
and several private Laboratories for special agricultural
scientific investigation, all fitted up with the aids and
appliances of the best German Laboratories, where the
Students may pursue a thorough course of qualitative
and quantitative analysis. Also, collections of Marls,
artificial Manures, Limestones, Ores, Minerals, &c., from
different localities of America and Europe.

Botany. — Herbariums with extensive collections of Ame-
rican and European plants; microscopes; a botanical
garden and green house with native and foreign plants;-
nursery for practice in budding, grafting, &c. ; and anato-
mical preparations for illustrating vegetable structures.
The neighboring flora, embracing, as it does, the wide range
of the valley and mountain soil, affords excellent opportu-
nities for botanical excursions,

Geology and Paleontology, — A collection of nearly six
5

54 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

thousand specimens of rocks, limestones, fossils, ores, &c.,
collected from all parts of the State, — together with a large
collection from Europe. The neighborhood is one of the
finest in the world for the study of the numerous subdivi-
sions of the Palaeozoic rocks, from the "primal" to the
"serai" of Kogers, in all of which the Student will have
an opportunity of obtaining good specimens on geological
excursions.

Mineralogy and Crystallography. — A good collection,
embracing specimens of all the ordinary minerals known,
and many rare specimens; also, collections of models, of
crystals, blow-pipe apparatus for mineral testing, &c.

Practical Agriculture and Horticulture. — A farm of four
hundred acres limestone land of excellent natural quality,
coming into a good state of cultivation, with all the tools,
implements, and machines for efficient farm practice, (see
P. 60) Experiments with all the chemical elements of
manures are carried out every session, for the purpose of
illustrating the effect of each element alone and in combi-
nation, as also experiments as to the time of planting and
sowing seeds, and applying manures. Each Student will
have an opportunity of learning all the varied operations
of ordinary farm, garden and nursery work, in connexion
with the management of farm stock. A small nursery
is especially devoted to practice for Students. There are
also extensive vineyard, orchards, &c.

Library. — An extensive collection of choice literary and
scientific works, with maps, diagrams, and charts, are ac-
cessible to the Student.

Reading Room. — A comfortable room with all the lead-
ing scientific and literary papers and journals, is set apart
for a reading room in the building.

Students' Societies. — There has been in the Institution
from the time of its first organization, two Students' Socie-
ties, the " Cresson Literary " and the " Washington Agri-
cultural" Societies. Each Society has a large and com-
modious room in which to hold its meetings, as also adjoin-
ing rooms for libraries, all fitted up in appropriate style by
the members of the respective Societies.

OF PENNSYLVANIA. 00

The character of the full Course of Studies is sufficiently
indicated by what has just been given in relation to them.
They are arranged to combine the study of Scientific prin-
ciples with their practical application.

The Student studies each of the several sciences purely
as a scientific study, and then his attention is devoted to
their practical application to agriculture and the industrial
arts. For example, he studies the science of Chemistry
in the class-room and laboratory, until he is able to analyze
all the substances that will be presented to him, as ores,
rocks and minerals for the miner; slags, fuel, metals and
alloys for the furnace operator; residual products for the
manufacturing chemist ; poisonous substances and abnormal
secretions for the physician; adulterated articles for the
consumer; and soils, marls, limestones, phosphates, guanoes,
ashes, and all other articles used or consumed in agricul-
ture for the farmer.

His attention is then devoted to the agricultural bear-
ings of the science. The manures found in the market
are put in his hands. He learns by analyzing them, to
distinguish between the good and bad, and his labors are
so superintended that his results* will be valuable to the
farmers of the country when published. A large number
of the analyses of manures found in the market, have
already been published. A course of experiments upon
the farm, with different kinds of manures for different
plants, is also being carried out, from year to year, upon a
large scale; while smaller plots, with suitable manures, are
allotted to students, that they may repeat for themselves
the experiments of the larger plot on a small scale, and
thus familiarize themselves with the experimental pro-
cesses by which, with the use of a few simple manures,
they may ascertain what soils need to bring them to the
highest degree of perfection — a desideratum once sought
by soil analyses, but never attained by them.

f mtkl Mtntiik mft § nuttail €ow»t

Experience has often demonstrated that many students
who are incapable of making progress in mathematical

56 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

studies, are well qualified for making successful students
of the natural sciences. In order not to prevent those
who may not be able to go through the higher mathema-
tics of the full course, from enjoying the benefits of the
natural sciences of the whole course, the "Partial Scien-
tific and Practical Course" has been instituted. Students
in this course will pursue the same studies as those of the
full course, excepting analytical geometry, the differential
and integral calculus, and the higher mechanics.

This is designed for such students as may wish to remain
for a limited period of time, in order to see the various
arts and operations of the Farm, Garden and Nursery;
and at the same time attend some of the classes in the Col-
lege, and thus get a general idea of the subjects taught, with-
out studying them with sufficient thoroughness to graduate.

It is intended more particularly for such as may have be-
come too old, or who are too delicate to take the entire
course, but who wish to acquire special practical and gene-
ral scientific knowledge, preparatory to going upon a farm.

It will be seen from the above, that the Agricultural
College of Pennsylvania is designed to occupy a place in
our educational system, not heretofore occupied, rather
than to come into competition with any Educational Insti-
tutions already in existence. Its course of studies and
practical operations are such that the student may, with
profit, go through the last two years of the latter, either
before or after he has completed the ordinary course of a
literary College.

The student has an opportunity of seeing all the practi-
cal operations of the Farm, Garden and Nursery performed

OF PENNSYLVANIA. 57

in the most approved manner, with the use of the best ma-
nures, seeds, tools, and implements ; and, what is of more
importance than this, he studies in the class-room and la-
boratory, the scientific principles involved in all he does,
and by becoming a scientific man, and analytical chemist,
he is enabled to protect himself and others against the
frauds and cheats that are continually being practised upon
the uneducated, by dealers who are themselves either igno-
rant of science, or who use it to impose upon the community.
He learns how to study the geology, mineralogy, and che-
mistry of the soil he cultivates, the botany of the plant he
grows, and the laws of health and disease of the animals
he uses.

In a word, he is made thoroughly acquainted with the
laws and phenomena of the material world with which he
is in immediate contact, and about which farmers are most
deplorably ignorant, but a knowledge of which is essential
to their material success, or intellectual pleasure, in the
pursuit of the duties of rural life.

To persons in cities who may wish their sons to become
acquainted with the details of practical agriculture and
science, and at the same time to cultivate the associations
of rural life, either with a view to ultimately settling upon
farms, or to increasing their capacity for business in town,
by the associations thus cultivated with the habits of the
country, the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania affords
excellent advantages.

Persons wishing a good scientific and practical know-
ledge of chemistry, with a view to druggistry, pharmacy, or
the manufacture of chemical salts or manures, or pursuing
the operations of mining, engineering, or any of the indus-
trial arts, will find rare opportunities at a comparatively
insignificant cost here.

All will find the advantages of a most healthy and plea-
sant location, in a neighborhood of good morals, free from
the allurements of city or village life, and of an oppor-
tunity for forming acquaintances with young men of re-
spectability from all parts of the State.

58 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

Qualifications. — Applicants must have attained the age
of sixteen years, and present satisfactory certificates of
good moral character and industrious habits ; and must also
have a good knowledge of the elementary branches of .the
common school course.

On entering, they must consider themselves pledged to
conform to all the rules and regulations of the Institution,
among which is the daily performance of three hours'
manual labor.

Expenses. — The sum of one hundred dollars must be
paid in advance, on entering. This, with the labor above
specified, will meet all expenses for boarding, room rent,
tuition and washing for the term of ten months.

Applications. — These may be made, either by addressing
the President of the Institution directly, or by applying
through the Agricultural Society of the county, in which
the applicant resides.

Certificates of Character. — These should be signed by
the student's last teacher, the officers of the Agricultural
Society of the county in which he resides, or by some other
friend of moral and agricultural improvement.

It is the earnest desire of the officers of the College to fill
it with industrious, trustworthy and gentlemanly Students,
whose sense of honor and appreciation of duty will be a gua-
rantee that they will conform to its rules and regulations.

It is their design to admit no other than such.

In addition to the one hundred dollars above specified,
Students will incur only the following expenses :

Boohs and Stationery. — These will be supplied at city
retail prices ; and will cost about eight dollars per term for
the third and fourth classes, and ten dollars per term for
the first and second classes.

Apparatus. — The Students of the second class will re-
quire about fifteen dollars' worth of apparatus, with which
to study chemical analysis in the laboratory. This, when

OF PENNSYLVANIA. 59

not damaged, will be taken back, if desired, at the close of
the term, at a reduction of twenty-five per cent, on the
first cost. With ordinary care, when the apparatus is re-
turned, the, cost of it per term will not exceed eight dollars.

Incidental Expenses. — A slight incidental expense will be
incurred for light, broom, towels, pitcher, wash basin, &c,
in all not exceeding five dollars per. annum.

Economy. — As it is desirable to impress upon Students the
necessity of forming habits of economy, parents are ad-
vised not to be too liberal in giving them money; and
they are recommended to deposit such sums as they may
intend for their sons or wards in the hands of the Faculty,
who will see that it is not spent improperly.

Clothes. — Each Student should come prepared with an
additional suit of clothes, of common material, for wearing
while working on the farm. As warm weather will com-
mence soon after the beginning of the term, he should also
make arrangements, previous to entering, for a supply of
summer clothing.

Although not indispensable, some delicate Students have
found an advantage in bringing with them a thick com-
fortable for their beds during a few cold days just after the
opening of College, or near its close.

The Institution is located in Centre County, near the
geographical centre of the State, at a distance of about
twenty-one miles northeast of the Pennsylvania Railroad
at Spruce Creek, and about the same distance northwest of
it at Lewistown, and nine miles southwest of Bellefonte.
Its site embraces a limestone soil of good natural quality,
in a fine healthy district, affording a view of the beautiful
Penn's Valley, in which it is situated, and which, at this
point, is about ten miles wide. On the northwest, at a
distance of about six miles, is seen the long range of the
Bald Eagle Mountains, and beyond these the smoky sum-
mits of the Alleghenies. In the opposite . direction, at an
equal distance, are seen the rolling ridges of the Seven
Mountains; while to the southwest, as far as the eye can

60 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES.

reach, extends the Penn's Valley, and in the opposite di-
rection, at the distance of about three miles, Nittany Moun-
tain rises abruptly, and divides it into two valleys, Penn's
and Nittany. With these mountains in the hgrizon, and
an intermediate landscape of five to ten miles, interspersed
with farms and timbered lands, few points in the State af-
ford finer views than that from the cupola of the College
buildings.

The school may be reached by students or visitors,

1st. By the Pennsylvania Rail Road to Spruce Creek,
Lewistown or Tyrone. From Spruce Creek a stage leaves
on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, passing the school
for Bellefonte, and returning on the intermediate days.

Daily stages from Lewistown and Tyrone run to Belle-
fonte, which latter place is accessible to the school by the
Spruce Creek stage, or by livery accommodation.

2d. By the Sunbury and Erie Railroad to Lock Haven,
and thence by stage to Bellefonte and the school, as just
mentioned.

The Lock Haven and Tyrone Rail Road which passes
within six miles of the College, will, it is hoped, be finished
before the opening of the next session. By it, Students
can come to Bellefonte from either the Pennsylvania Cen-
tral, or the Sunbury and Erie Railroad.

It is proposed here to notice some implements, machines,
&c, not before noticed in our catalogue, that have been
used upon the farm and are now to be seen on the premises.

REAPING MACHINES.

M'CormicJc's Combined Self-raking Reaper and Mower,
This machine did not arrive at the college in time to be
tested as a mower, but two of the Trustees, Judge Watts
and H. N. McAllister, Esqs., speak of it in the highest terms
as a mower. As a reaper, we gave it a fair trial through
several days in succession cutting heavy wheat, the prin-
cipal part of which was lodged, and a great deal of it was
very much tangled. It was drawn by four mules, in charge

OF PENNSYLVANIA. 61

of one of our most responsible students, (J. P. Alexander,
of Kishacoquillas) and did its work in the most satisfac-
tory manner. The raker not only performs its work of re-
moving the grain from the platform, but, by its well-adjusted
motions, in front of the knife, and near the ground, it
draws the tangled grain upon the knife, and removes it the
instant it is cut off; thus letting the machine down beneath
the lodged grain, should it by any means have got above
some of it, as often happens with reapers when cutting
grain in the direction in which it is lodged. The machine
was witnessed in operation by a large number of farmers,
many of whom owned other reapers, and all without excep-
tion admitted that it was the most complete reaper they had
ever seen. It is manufactured by McCormick & Brothers,
Chicago, Illinois. Cost of the reaper and self-raker attached
$175,00.

Pennock's Iron Harvester. — This is also a combined
reaper and mower. We used it for several days in our
grass. The ground was very rough, and contained an un-
due amount of stumps, roots, and stones, but the machine
did its work quite satisfactorily; it was drawn by two mules.
As a reaper, it was also used to cut about twenty-five acres
of wheat, which it did very well. It required three mules
to draw it, and two students to attend to it. This machine
is remarkable for the simplicity of its construction, and its
consequent security against getting out of order, as also for
its light draft.

It is manufactured by Pennock & Brother, at Kennet
Square, Chester County, Pa., and the cost of the machine
is $135,00.

Through the liberality of the respective manufacturers of
the above machines, the college received them both as dona-
tions, for which its officers would here extend their most
cordial thanks. Each machine has its peculiar merits, and
speaks well for the energy and enterprise of the manufac-
turers. For large farms and extensive crops of grain, there
can be no doubt that M'Cormick's reaper is unequalled by
any other in the world. For smaller farms, and when the
difference of cost would be an item of importance, the iron

6

62 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

harvester would assert its claims. As a matter of some in-
terest, it may be stated here that for every hundred feet
which the machine advances across the field the M'Cor-
mick's reaper makes 264.7 strokes of 3.75 inches with its
knives, making 82.7 feet of lateral motion to 100 of the
longitudinal or forward motion of. the cutting edge.

The Iron Harvester in the same distance makes 132.8
strokes of 6.6 inches each, making a total of 73.3 feet late-
ral for 100 of horizontal motion. The lateral motion of the
former is 12.8 per cent, greater than the other for the same
velocity of the machines.

Fans for Cleaning Grain. — One patented by Cyrus C.
Crain, of Addison, Steuben County, N. Y., proves a very
superior article; superior even to the climax machine which
has proved an excellent one wherever used. It is adapted
to cleaning clover seed, and to removing rye from wheat,
and for all the purposes of a grain fan, it is worthy of the
patronage of farmers. These fans are for sale at Miles-
burg, Centre County, Pennsylvania. Price $28.00.

Horse Rake. — This is a common iron-toothed horse-rake
differing from others principally in having springs to keep
the teeth down when in operation. It works well, and is
manufactured by Fred. Bletz, of Columbia, Lancaster
County, Pennsylvania.

An Ericsson Hot- Air Engine. — This is an engine with a
piston thirteen inches in diameter, and eleven inches stroke.
It is used to throw water through about 1,000 feet of pipe
to an elevation of ninety feet. It has been in use for two
years, and has worked very well, throwing water when in
operation at the rate of from ten to sixteen barrels per hour,
at an insignificant cost of fuel. It is very easily managed,
any careful student being able to take entire care of it.

Other Implements and Machines. — There is a large assort-
ment of all kinds of farming implements, &c, on hand,
such as are required for the extensive operations of a farm
of 400 acres, with gardens, nurseries, hot-house.

OF PENNSYLVANIA. 63

Conclusion. — It is the design of the officers of the insti-
tution, as soon as practicable, to give attention to the raising
of improved stock, and to experiments upon the value of
different food under different circumstances for fattening
purposes, as, also, to have suitable arrangements for the pre-
servation and use of liquid manures. As yet these things
have been neglected to attend to the more strictly edu-
cational department of the institution. It is hoped, how-
ever, that they will soon all receive their due amount of
attention.

CORRESPONDENCE. &c.

The present session of the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania
will close on Wednesday, the 18th of December, 1862.

The session for 1863 will open on Wednesday, the 22d of Febru-
ary and close about the 19th of the following December.

Persons wishing further particulars in reference to the College, will
address Dr. E. Pugh, Agricultural College, Pa.

YC 21248