New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-07-06
CORNELL UNIHERSITY.

CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
For many reasons this school of learning is
now drawing more eyes upon it than any col
lege in the State. In many parts of the coun-
try friends of education, young and old, watch
its development, read the reports OF its Com
mencement, admire the spirit, rapidly becom-
ing contagious among our wealthiest citizens
that prompts rich gifts to this and similar ed
ucatonal purposes. Like the eXpectant bride
of a wealthy house. the fact that her dOwry is
large prompts expensive presents from all her
friends. She is to have sixteen brocade dresses
and twenty-five pairs of slippers, a cottage at
Long Branch and brown-stOne on the ave-
me. Therefore, an uncle gives her a silver
soup tureen, another presents a thoroughbred
pony, well broken to the saddle, and her
cousins give solid spoons and forks by the
dozen.
In the eXhilaraton and happy family pride
that we feel in seeing college setting ont
with appointments thus princely, will not the
most gushing of her admirers bear with us
while we calmly discuss her chances for a ca
reer of the highest educational usefulness
While we honor the founder, and join in the
wish of Mr.. Gould that he may be comforted
with the consciousness through all his declin-
ing years that he has largely contributed to the
wealth, the happiness, and the elevation of his
race, we must not lose sight Of the truth that
Cornell is n school created under act of Con-
gress and endowed by the noble largess from
the General Government of nearly a million of
acres of the public domain.
The efficient words of the act of endowment
are that the interest of the money funded by
the sale of the scrip shall be inyioatcly APP
propriated to the maintenance of college
where the leading object shall be TO teach such
branches of learning as are related to agricul-
tire and the mechanic arts, in order to pro-
mote the liberal and practical education of the
industrial classes.
In examining the catalogue of the University
at Ithaca we see that 412 young men have been
instructed there during the past year, of whom
only 80 have been students of agriculture. OF
the Graduating Class, eight in number, not one
proposes at present to have anything to do
directly or indirectly with the Iarts of tillage.
There has been instruction in Agricultural
Chemistry, but none as yet worth mentioning
in practical agriculture nor in the mechanics of
the farm. We recall the proverb that ione man
may take horse to water, but ten cannot make
make free choice of their professions. Yet we
cannot clear our minds of the conviction that
Congress, in using the words we have quoted,
intended to set up schools where n majority of
the youth should be educated to be scientific
farmers and artisans, not schools whence
Bachelors of Arts should troop off, in squads of
different sizes, to the Law, to Medicine, and
the Pulpit. Let ns state precisely what
some friends of the brilliant young school at
Ithaca fear. We think that the very largeness
and splendOr of the outline, the scope Of the
founder, the vast circle of human knowledge
which his eye takes in, and for the pursuit of
which such exquisite pTepaT atoms are mar
shaded, may dazzle the eyes of young men and
puzzle their choice.
Why is there such pressure on the doors
of this college before patch of moss has had
time to gather on the coolest of her foundation
stones7 Is it because so many young men are
really in earnest to master the principles upon
which agriculture and the mechanic arts are
based Or is it because the largeness of its gifts
the size and number of the structures built or
begun, the fame of its professors, the cOntri-
buttons made by our Town and foreign Govern
ments, have had the effect of flaming adver-
tisement and have filed thousands of minds
with expectations vast but vaguef
There are those who think a school of agri-
culture cannot, as our society now is, be largely
attended. If boy would learn how to grow
potatoes, why, argue they, should he leave his
fathers patch. Would he learn all about the
grasses, let him learn by moving a miscella-
neous acre of botanical specimens. Would be
study corn let him use the hoe. Would he
know soils let him pillow. The best answer to
that sophism is to ask man to look around
him and pick out the best observers of facts.
Have they not cultivated their minds by home
OF school studiesH And has the intensely prac-
teal method of teaching agriculture recon-
mended given us a race Of intellgent and sue
cessful farmers 7 We need agricultural schools
properly so called, not merely m all-embra-
cling system at one University which takes IN
blowing as it does Sanscrit.
The precise change which we urge upon the
Trustce8 aud Faculty Of, Cornell is this; TO make