xt7ghx15n565_110 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7ghx15n565/data/mets.xml https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7ghx15n565/data/0000ua001.dao.xml unknown 9.56 Cubic Feet 33 boxes archival material 0000ua001 English University of Kentucky Property rights reside with the University of Kentucky. The University of Kentucky holds the copyright for materials created in the course of business by University of Kentucky employees. Copyright for all other materials has not been assigned to the University of Kentucky. For information about permission to reproduce or publish, please contact the Special Collections Research Center.  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. James K. Patterson papers Patterson Speeches text Patterson Speeches 2024 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7ghx15n565/data/0000ua001/Box_11/Folder_1/Multipage9588.pdf 1870, 1900-1908 1908 1870, 1900-1908 section false xt7ghx15n565_110 xt7ghx15n565  

 

 

 

EDUCATION REQUIRED BY
UUR FARMERS.

 

AN ADDRESS

 

DELIVERED AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE

STATE GRANGE OF KENTUCKY,

DECEMBER 11, 1883,

BY

JAMES K. PATTERSON. PH. D.. F. S. A..

PRESIDENT OF THE STATE AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COL-
LEGE OF KENTUCKY.

FRANKFORT, KY.:
PR/NTED AT THE KENTUCKY YEOIIIAN OFFICE.
MAJOR, JOHNSTON. 81 BARRETT.
1884.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

   

 

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 ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT J. K. PATTERSON

Delivered before the State Grange,
December 11, 1883.

In the United States, as in all countries possessing so
extended a geographical area, and embracing such a va-
riety of soil and climate, agricultural interests must always
be paramount. Second, but only second in importance, is
and will be the mechanical industry of the country. Not
only are these the most important occupations, but they
furnish employment to much the largest part of our popu-
lation. The professions styled liberal, the merchants and
bankers, the dealers in stocks and bonds, the gentlemen of
literature, and the gentlemen of leisure, are all possible only
through the existence and the activity of the agriculturist
and the artisan. They are the producers and manufac-
turers of the raw material, the creators of our wealth, the
basis of all our material prosperity, and supply the indis-
pensable condition of all intellectual, political, and moral
power.

The members of the liberal professions, the lawyer, the
physician, the minister, the teacher, those engaged in the dis-

tribution of the wealth which these create, those who apply

themselves to discovery and invention, those who aspire
to manage affairs of the township, the county, the munici-
pality, the State and the Nation, all these are, and of right
ought to be, their servants. These relations are often re-
versed; but this is not the order of nature. These relations
are not only reversed, but oftentimes ignored, and that has
been made first which is last, and that last which by right is
and ought to be first. With the progress of intelligence and

 

  

  

' 2
the growth of freedom, the rights and necessities of the ag~
riculturist and the artisan have been recognized. Now, I
hold that this recognition implies and necessitates an edu-
cation for the industrial classes, for the farmer and the
mechanic, equal to that of any, whether professional or
liberal. I do not hold that this education should be of the
same kind as that given to the clergy, or the physician, or the
lawyer, or the man of letters. The character of education
provided for these is determined by the Special kind of activity
to which each desires to apply his intellectual endowments;
in other words, by the end which each has in view. The
intending clergyman applies himself to Greek, to exegetic
and dogmatic theology; the physician to anatomy, materia
medica, and therapeutics; the lawyer to abstract discussions
of right, and to the study of statute law. But before each
of these begins to study the special departments of science
which form the distinctive features of the profession which he
is supposed to have in view, he is subjected to a course of
preliminary training and discipline. His intellectual powers
must be awakened, his latent and dormant faculties evoked
into healthful and vigorous activity. He must be taught to
think, to think vigorously, to think correctly. His educa-
tion is directly proportioned to his capacity for prolonged
and spontaneous activity; and the main purpose in view by
all those who have in charge the education of youth is to

cultivate and develop the intellectual endowments so as best .

to attain this end.

The preliminary training which young men undergo who
intend to become lawyers and physicians, ministers and
teachers, artists and engineers, inventors and discoverers, all
tend to this end. This education is given not so much for
the amount of knowledge which it conveys as for the mental
activity and vigor which it assures, for the ability which it
confers to think vigorously and to think correctly. The boy
who toils through proportion and square root may see little
practical utility in the long examples devised, so far as he can

 

 

 

  

  

 

 

 
   
 

 

  

3

see, to perplex and puzzle, but when he has gotten through
his task and understands his work, whether he is aware of it

, or not, he is better prepared to grapple with and to solve prob-

lems which he 'could not have touched before. And when
he has advanced into geometry and algebra. though he may
see little practical utility in the demonstration of‘a formula
for logarithms or the development of the complex relations
of sine and cosine, tangentand cotangent; yet when he gets
through these and understands them he is prepared to ad-
vance to higher and higher reaches of reasoning thought.

So it is with the discipline and strength acquired through-
the study 'of language, the study of the laws of thought, the
study of the rights of man and the duties of man, the study of
the Creator in His works, and the study of man in relation to
himself, in relation to his kind and in relation to his God.
All mental discipline expands,'invigorates, and ennobles,
and this, after all, is the prime object of all education and of
all existence.

Upon the discipline and habits thus acquired the pro-
fessional man builds. His powers of observation are sharp—
ened, his reason strengthened, his acquisitions multiplied,
his sense of right invigorated, his powers of expression
enlarged. \Vhen these are accomplished, the mere profes
sional acquirements which enable the professional man to
enter upon his profession are easy enough of attainment.
But, up to a certain point, whatever the intended profession
of the student may be, the course of preliminary education
is or ought to be very much the same. A course of study

ought to be prescribed and entered upon, prosecuted and

completed, which will provide the necessary kind of training
to all the powers of the mind, not cultivating one faculty while
others are left uncared for—but cultivating each and all in
proper proportion, so that the mind shall be trained and devel
oped as a symmetrical whole. At one stage of growth the
powers of observation and memory ought to be sharpened and
strengthened; at another the faculty of connected thought,

 

  

  

  

4

the faculty of reasoning, and the conditions which legitimate
Conclusions. Concurrently with these the sense of duty,
our obligations to the Creator, to mankind and to ourselves,
should be developed and strengthened in such way that
what we owe to others, as well as what others owe to us,
should be understood. Who shall be made the beneficiaries
of this sort of education? Is it necessary for the future
lawyer and physician and clergyman only P Shall the neces-
sity also be admitted for the civil engineer, the teacher, the
man of letters, and, in addition to these, for the sons of
the wealthy? \Vhen all these have been included, shall all
others be virtually excluded? Shall it be said that after pro-
vision has been made for the intended professional classes,
that the duty of the municipality, the State and the Nation,
is fulfilled? I answer no.

The men and women who create and transform the
wealth of mankind, by whose labor the wealth of the
municipality and the State is rendered possible, who con-
stitute the bone and sinew of a nation, who are its guar‘
dians in time of peace, its safeguard and bulwark in times
of peril, these men and these women deserve an education,
so far as preliminary training goes, equal to that provided
for any of the professions. They are, and, in the nature of
things, always must be, by far the most numerous part of
the population. They make the men who legislate, they
make the men who interpret the law, they make the men who
execute the law. When they have made these, does their
duty and their right end there? Nay, verily. The masses
who are the ultimate depositories of power need to know
the principles on which civil government is constituted; the
mutual limitations of liberty and authority; the right and
:the wrong of questions of home and foreign policy; the
expediency of this line of political conduct and the inexpe-
‘diency of that; the limitations under which corporations
may be allowed to exist; the powers which may be dele-
gated to the governing bodies for the good of those who

 

  

 

     

 

 

5

are governed. Now, all this cannot be accomplished intel-
ligently unless the education given them embraces such
training and such instruction as will qualify them to under-
stand these rights and these duties. And, passing from the
rights and obligations of citizenship, why, I ask, should a
liberal, elementary education, deemed necessary for the
rich and for the members of the learned professions, be
denied to the agriculturist and the mechanic? It must be
for one of two reasons~—either that they do not need it, or
that they are not worthy of it.

When it can be shown that the possessors of power al‘
ways exercise it {or the best advantage of the millions whom
they govern, that legislators are invariably unselfish, that the
judiciary is always above corruption, and that corporations are
invariably merciful; then we may admit that, so far as the
functions of government are concerned, the masses may ab-
dicate the useless luxury of elections and delegate onCe for
all the right of succession to those who govern them. But,
granting all this, does it follow that the agriculturist and the
mechanic can dispense with an education? V‘Vhy should he
be denied the light that irradiates the human soul? \Vhy
should he be condemned, son of toil though he be, to look
with a less intelligent mind upon the mysteries and the
glories of the skies that bend above him, or of the earth that
stretches out beneath him? \Vhy should the wonders of
the organic and the inorganic world, the endless complexity'
of animal and vegetable existence around him, be to him as
they are to the ox which he fattens for his table, or to the
horse which draws his plow—shrouded under an impene-
trable veil? Possessor of a mind whose faculties are godlike
and whose capacities are all but infinite, why should all this
exhaustless treasure be to him a storehouse sealed and
bound? Why should the achievements of the past, the
deeds of the men of old in science, in literature, in art and
in arms, be to him as though they had never been?

The telescope, which brings immensity within the fields
of his vision; the spectroscope, which by analysis affords.

  

  

6

him the constitution of sun and moon, of planets and stars,
whose distance he may compute but cannot adequately
represent even in imagination; the microscope, which re-
veals all but the ultimate processes of existence and all but
the ultimate atoms of which the universe is built up; the
telephone and telegraph, the railway and the steamship;
shall the knowledge of these and the knowledge/which they
reveal and the principles of their construction and the laws
of nature by which they are made possible, be the heritage,
the birthright of the rich few, but practically inaccessible to
the millions? I would educate the son of the farmer and the
.son of the artisan as I would educate the sons of the banker
:and stock-broker. the sons of the merchant and lawyer, the
'sons of the minister and teacher. I would give them the
opportunity of an education similar in kind up to a certain
point. the point namely: where each should begin to spec—
ialize in order to prepare himself for a particular pursuit in
life.

Now, what should this preliminary education necessary
for all include? Every one, of course, will say reading and
writing. Well, what does that mean? It means a good deal
less now than it did when Christopher Columbus discovered
America. Why? Knowledge then was comparatively lim-
ited Few had gone beyond the merest rudiments, and the
man who could read and write was on a par with the best of
his fellows. There was then little geography, arithmetic was
almost unknown, anatomy and physiology were non-exist-
ent, chemistry and astronomy had not advanced beyond
alchemy and astrology. The natural sciences, as we under-
stand them, had not come into being. Reading and writing,
then, made their possessors participants in the meager knowl-
edge of the times. But now a man may know how to read
and write, and if he knows no more, be an intellectual bar-
barian. We must go beyond mere reading and writing, then,
to bring our men and women into actual participancy in the
knowledge of our time. There is arithmetic in its largest

 

.537

 

  

.537

    

 

    

7

sense, the science ofnumbers, which carries us on to algebra
and geometry, enabling its possessor to measure earth and
sea and heaven. There is geography and geology, informing
us of the present and past condition of the globe which we
inhabit There is chemistry and physics, making us ac-
quainted with the constituent elements of matter, whether
in the inert lifeless mass or in the organized animal and
vegetable with the laws which determine their constitution
and relations. Theie is animal and vegetable anatomy and
phy siology, revealing the principles of structure and the pro-
cesses of growth and nutrition. And there is the wonderful
human mind with all its godlike powers, reflecting the image
of its maker, transcending the bounds of time and space,
grappling with the problems of existence, penetrating all
things in earth and air and sky, and aspiring to union and
communion with the Divine, whence it sprang. Its laws,
its operations, its limitations, are there for contemplation
and study. Now, which of these departments of knowledge
and research should be closed to the future farmer and artisan P
From which of these fields waving with golden harvest would
you exclude him P Born to know. is not all knowledge his le-
gitimate domain 9 Enriched by the possession of knowledge
in an equal degree with others, and enriched beyond any
powers of numbers to express, why should any human being
the end of whose existence is to know himself and the uni-
verse around him, to create wealth out of the materials which
God has given him, ‘to devote himself to thatoccupation which
the father of his country has dignified as the most honorable
and useful to man—why, I ask, should not he be afforded
the same opportunity for its acquisition and possession as
those who create nothing, but live by the labor of others?
He is, I hold, not only worthy of a good education, but
worthy of the best.

Your sons furnish the best blood of the country. They
not only produce that which sustains life. but year by year
they throw an infusion of fresh blood and fresh life into the

 :vrsstmszrtrren my "-1 -. .-. -'r * -" ."

a .

 

8

cities, whose populations would otherwise decline and ulti-
mately die out. They thus directly and indirectly vitalize‘
all the varied elements of population, provide the bone and
sinew and nerve and brain of the nation, and supply material
not only for the agriculturist and mechanic but for the mer-
chant and manufacturer, the inventor and discoverer, the
judiciary, the bar and the legislature. Every farmer’s son is
a possible Senator or Cabinet officer, Governor or President,
and whether he attains the highest offices ofhonor and profit
or not. in a hundred ways and on a hundred occasions he
can turn to practical account the discipline and training for
which I plead. In such assemblies as this, in the halls of
legislation, in the political arena, he is called upon to scru~
tinize measures, to determine their justice, their policy, their
expediency, to disentangle sophistry, to maintain right and
denounce wrong. In all these relations the man of brains,
of education, of vast and varied information, has immeasur-
ably the advantage. \Vhatever the question at issue, he
holds all the threads which make up the warp and woof of
the web, however complicated, in his hands, and while his
illiterate antagonist is fumbling and floundering he sees
with intuitive glance right through the whole.

The farmer is the only true conservative in any community.
His interests are immediately connected with the soil which
he tills. Through all changes of government his lands re-
main. The capitalist with his stocks and his bonds has no-
such interest in the perpetuity and integrity of good govern-
ment as has the agriculturist. He can transfer the contents
of his vaults and money chests from continent to continent
at ten days’ notice. If revolution and anarchy impend, he
discerns the coming storm and transfers his movables to
happier shores. But the barns and granaries, the flocks and.
herds and lands of the husbandman cannot so be converted
and transferred. These remain to be burned and plundered
and despoiled. Hence, the husbandman has a stake in the-
existence of civil government which the mere capitalist and

 

 

”15- "

  

 

9

broker has not; and if there be one debt, one obligation
which you owe greater than all others, paramount to all
others, it is that you educate your sons to maintain and con—
serve and transmit in their purity and in their integrity the
institutions which you have inherited, the wealth which you
have created, the heritage of freedom which you have de-
fended. If this people are to remain free, the muscle and
brain of those who till the soil must maintain this free-
dom. An educated, intelligent, and moral population,
such as I hope the coming ages will find in these States,
can never be enslaved. But you will have need of all
that education and intelligence and morality can give.
One hundred years will not pass before a population of
300,000,000 of souls will be found within the boundaries of
these United States. In cities fourfold the population of
New York, will be found tens of thousands of illiterates, the
scum and dregs of society, a mass of irresponsible poverty,
whom any Vanderbilt or Gould or Astor of the future can
buy, whom corporations can control in order to control leg-
islation and monopolize power. \Vhat is the only possible
counterpoise to this explosive element, to this prostitution of
the franchise, to this perpetual menace? I answer, the edu-
cated yeomanry of the country. If free institutions perish,
they will perish not so much because of a corrupt municipal
pro/darz'az‘, as because of an uneducated, rural population who,
because of their ignorance, were unable to counterwork the
mischief wrought by the venality of the moneyless mob and
the rapacity of the moneyed monopolist. This is the plea
which I make for the broad, liberal, comprehensive education
of the agriculturist and the mechanic—education which I in-
sist ought to be as broad, as liberal, and as comprehensive
as that provided for any other up to the point where each
begins to specialize forhis particular profession or avocation.
To limit the further consideration of what should be done
specially for the education of the agriculturist, I beg your
attention to the following considerations:

 

     

    

IO

“ Agriculture is an art, not a science. There is no more
a science of agriculture than there is a science of medi-
cine. Men sometimes talk loosely about science and art,
failing to make the distinction which should be made.
Science is something more than a mass of information. It
is a body, an organized system of established truths and
principles. But, though medicine is not a science, there
are many sciences relating to the healing art, throwing light
upon it and guiding it on its diFficult way; making it rational,
not empiric; an intelligent apprehension of the relation of
cause and effect, and not mere fortuitous guess-work. Bot-
any, pharmacy, chemistry, anatomy, surgery, physiology,
»and pathology are all sciences, without which the healing art
as a rational art could not exist. So far as the physician is
concerned, all these exist for the sake of his art and make
it possible. So agriculture, though not a science, is sur-
rounded by sciences which throw light upon it. As the
sciences advance which are related to it, the art becomes
more rational. And if we might call an art liberal in pro-
portiOn to its affiliation with science, then agriculture is the
most liberal of all the arts.” See what sciences it lays under
contribution for its purpose: The chemistry of soils and
the chemistry of animal and vegetable life; geology and
physical geography, which determine the composition of
soils and the temparature of latitudes ; comparative anatomy,
animal and vegetable physiology, animal and vegetable
pathology, even mathematics and physics, all are related to
the art of agriculture, and intimately so.

“ Step out on your farm and pick up a handful of soil, and
before you can answer all the questions which that soil puts
to you, you will have need of sciences not a few. You must

know something of physical geography, organic and inor- _
ganic: chemistry,the geology of your own and contiguous sec-
tions of country, their water-sheds and water-courses. Pick
up a piece of coal or limestone, this well rounded pebble or
that fossil, and before you are prepared to answer all the ques-

 

  

II

tions connected with the origin of the one, or the physical
conditions which have determined the other, you will have
laid many scienCes under contribution. Stoop down and de-
tach a single blade of grass with its roots, and you will have
in your hand all the essential data of the problem which one of
the most wonderful of all the sciences is called upon to solve.
Crawling under your feet, humming about your ears, infest—
ing the plant which you have in your hand, disputing with
you the possession of the air which you are about to take
into your lungs, are living creatures whose structure, habits,
and relations to other organic life forms but one division of
the vast science which treats of all animated existence on
the earth, in the air, and in the sea.” The relations of these
to the vegetable and animal kingdom with which the farmer
has to deal, are now recognized with the recognition that the
fertility or barrenness of his fields, and the health or disease
of his cattle, often depends upon these minute organisms.

“Every plant that grows on your farm, every animal in
your stockyard, every bird and insect that hovers in the air,
every implement of husbandry, every road, fence, . farm
building

5!

every running stream, swamp, forest, Change of
temperature, rain-storm, drought, every alluvial deposit left
by the swollen stream,every upheaved rock, everything that
the farmer’s eye rests upon or his ear hears, or which grati-
fies or offends his sense of smell borne on the passing breeze,
everything represents a science which is very close to his
Work or which it is his interest to know.” The knowledge
may, in some instances, not materially increase the contents
of his storehouse, but it adds to his pleasure and gratifies his
curiosity. Man was made to know—made a little lower than
the angel—but endowed with faculties and capacities far
above the horse which drags his plow, or the sheep which
supplies the clothing for his family.

As his knowledge increases, how his plants grow, how
the stock upon which he bestows his care and his thought
develop from the rudimentary germ to the embryo, and

 

  

12

from the embryo to the beautifully proportioned thorough--
bred which adorns his pastures, or the lamb which gambols
before its dam upon the lawn, he feels a keener avidity for the
acquisition of knowledge, a deeper sympathy with nature
and the processes of nature; appreciates more fully his own
dignity, his relation to the chain of animated existence of
which he is the glory and the crown, and to the Creator who
brought him and them into being.

“ Here the question may be asked, what use has the practi-
cal farmer for all this? Cannot he raise corn, and carry his
mules and hogs to market without a knowledge of botany
and geology P " I answer he can, and if the end for which the
Creator made the agriculturist, and the aim of his existence,
be to grow corn and market mules and hogs, then I concede
the question without argument.

But corn, hogs, and mules exist for the sake of man, and
not man for the mules and hogs. The end and aim of
human existence is something higher and nobler than this.
His thoughts, if he rises to a proper conception of his dig-
nity and of the nobility of his nature, are not altogether of
the earth and earthy. They reach beyond the bounds of
space and of time. His origin allies him to the Divine and
not to the brute. His mission is not to live and vegetate,
but to comprehend himself and all things out of himself; to
comprehend all but the incomprehensible God.

"If the question be asked what use has the farmer for
algebra and geometry, I answer, quite as much in his sphere
as the physician or the lawyer or inventor can in his. They
serve to develop his mind, to expand his conceptions, to dis-
cipline his faculties; and is not the mind of the farmer
with its conceptions and faculties and far-reaching possibil-
ities, of as much value to him, of as much service to society
and the world, as that of the physician or lawyer, minister,
or philosopher? He is thereby brought into more intimate
relation with universal progress, with the march of intellect;
he can solve difficulties with more ease, think more clearly,.

 

  

13

b

calculate probabilities with more certainty, adjust meansto
ends with better judgment, disentangle the web of sophistry
with more certainty, and becomes prepared to be a leader
of men instead of being made the follower and dupe of
others. “ If this be so, then every intelligent father, what-
ever heritage he may be able to leave his son in acres and
stocks, will want to see his mind so trained, so disciplined,
so instructed in the science and knowledge of the age, that
he can receive instruction and pleasure and profit from every
blade of grass, from every passing breeze, from the rill that
bubbles at his feet,” from the stars which sparkle in the
heaven above him, from the bow which spans the arch of
the sky. He becomes, then, the seer, the prophet, the in-
terprezer of himself, of nature, of God. Superior to nature,
modifying, directing, and controlling her powers, not for
physical purposes only, not for the sordid accumulation of
wealth only, but for high moral ends. This is the sort of
education which I have in my mind, and this is the sort of
education to the realization of which I ask your co-operatlon
today.

In addition to the means provided for class-room instruc-
tion, which for the present answer fairly well, there ought to
be procured for the service of the College a farm sufficiently
large for all the requirements of experimental agriculture.
During the connection of the College with the Kentucky
University, a farm was provided for its use, bought and paid
for by the subscriptions of the citizens of Lexington and vi-
cinity in order to induce the State to place its Agricultural
College at Lexington. On this farm, consisting of the two
estates of Ashland and Woodland, and embracing 430 acres
of the best land in Central Kentucky, had also been erected
a large building for a mechanical department, well equipped
with machinery. The State of Kentucky had also advanced
$20,000 for the erection of buildings, all or most of which
is alleged to have been expended on these two estates.

Upon the separation of the A. and M. College from the
Kentucky University, this real estate which had been bought

 

  

 

  

.14

for its use, was claimed and held by Kentucky University.
Had the State College been the owner of this magnificent
estate in fee, as it ought now to be, the necessity which I
now bring before you would not exist. To conduct experi«
mental farming with any degree of success, a tract of land
is needed upon which permanent improvements can be made,
and upon which a series of experiments, extending over a
term of years, can be begun and carried forward. To do
this upon a short lease, terminable under certain conditions
at the option of the lessor, is quite impracticable

A tract of land owned by the College, could in a short
time be made what the organic law of Congress expected
every 'Agricultural College to have—-a model farm. Upon
such a farm ought to be seen the representatives of the best
breeds ofbeef and milk cattle, ofthe best varieties of sheep,
and the best kinds of swine Upon it shoul d be erected
model buildings for housing the employees, f01 storing grain
and provender, and for providing shelter for those varieties
of stock which require it. Facilities should be provided
for testing the relative values of different kinds of food
prepared under all conceivable conditions. Upon this farm
experiments should be conducted in the growth and
nourishment of all cereals, grasses, root crops, and
other productions suitable to the latitude of the Com-
monwealth, under all possible variations of soil, planting
and cultivation, the results of which should be carefully
tabulated and given to the public. Every kind of ma-
chinery for preparing the soil, planting, cultivating, and
reaping, should likewise be represented he1e—in sho1t, the
whole estate should be made an educational apparatus, where—
on should be exemplified in practice and translated into
action the instructions of the class-room. Here all the de—
partments of study which I have shown make agriculture
possible as an art, ought to find emphasis, illustration, and
practice. To provide all this, however, requires money—re—
quires legislation. I come here to-day to invite your co-

 

  

  

15
0

operation in procuring the funds to inaugurate a new era in
industrial education in Kentucky. During the connection
of the A. and M. College with Kentucky University, not-
withstanding the possession of the estate to whichI have
referred, the idea of experimental farming was only fitfully
attempted, and, on account of circumstances to which I need
not recur—never realized. Since the separation in 1878, the
College has had no opportunity even to attempt it, because
ofythe absence of the indispensable condition—a farm. All
the States around us, NorthpSouth, East, and \Vest, have
provided their Agricultural Colleges with farms handsomely
equipped and stocked, ranging in area from 100 to 1,000
acres.

Kentucky is rich. The grounds on which the College
stands are the gift of the city of Lexington. Most of the ex-
penditure incurred in the erection of the magnificent buildings
which crown the old city park was defrayed by the proceeds
of the city and county bonds given to the State for this pur-
pose. The accommodations are ample for the instruction of
500 pupils, and theoretical instruction is provided in all or
nearly all the departments relating to agriculture. Only the
farm is wanting, and that is indespensable. For procuring
this I desire and claim your co-operation. I would urge you
to take the initiative to procure the necessary legislation look-
ing to this end, or at least your active co-operation towards
its attainment. Iwill go farther. I think the agricultural
interests of Kentucky ought to have an adequate representa-
tion on the Board of Trustees, by additional legislation, if
this should be deemed necessary, and to this end I would
pledge my hearty and loyal cooperation.

1f the State of Kentucky, turning a deaf ear to the fac-
tious opposition of interested parties, will sustain your State
College as it ought, cheapening education, widening its
range, bringing it within the reach of the industrial classes,
making it accessible to all, rich and poor, on equal terms,
educating your teachers, your farmers, your mechanics, your