Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1870-02-22
The Vermont Agricultural College

Inc president OF this INSTITUTION mas done
well in bringing this subject so fully before |
your readers. l trust they will more than
ever realize the good that ought to be done
by an agricultural school, and consider |
well the finall desires set forth in President |
Angeles communication. How to enlarge |
the means of the college, and how to do |
more good with the means now at their
disposal?
He says Vermont is almost the only
state in which neither the farms nor the
legislature have furnished any help to the
Agricultural College" This would be
reproach if the subject had been properly
presented. But has this college, by its
trustees or president, ever asked the legis-
lature for aid?
Last fall there was appropriated $4,000
to aid the Reform School in the education
of those very bad boys that "Orleans Coun-
ty" referred to. There was $500 appro-
priated to the Normal Schools; and to aid
in holding teachers institutes Secretary
Rankin was authorized to pay S95 day
for five days, in each county, for extra help,
aside from his own expenses and salary,
which amounts to over $1,000. Then the
regular state school tax which is divided
among the districts as public money is an
immense sum. So we see that the legisla-
ture is not Indifferent to the cause of edu-
cation, but assists in liberal manner.
Now I have asked members of both
branches of the legislature, and while they
remember the reports of various other pub
lie institutions, they have no recollection
of any report from the Agricultural Col
! lege, and no statement of its wants, or of
its prosperity or its plans And its name
does not appear in the doings of the legis-
lature, volume of about $50 pages Of acts
relating to every interest of the state except
agriculture. Then have the farmers been
appealed to? Tell me when and where
Whose fault is it then if money is not do
mated when those, whose especial business
it is to preside over its affairs, do not ask
it? Who knows the wants of horse so
well as the groom? The state is morally
bound to assist the Agricultural College
because it accepted this fund for a definite
purpose. If a generous party offer par
ents cloth to make their children clothes,
can parents in honor accept this cloth As a
speculation, and the children 60 naked in
order to save the seamstress' bill? Can a
, man il honor accept the gift of COW with
the deliberate design of starving it? When
the state accepted the grant of $50, 00C
acres ofland to endow a college, where the
practical education of the industrial classes
should be promoted, it is in honor bound
to put enough money with it to carry ou
the intended purpose.
In 1864 the war was just closing, an(
t the body of men Incorporated as the Agri
> cultural College were required to raist
500, 600 in year. 1t was not raised anC
= the state had no right to expect it of thos,
; men. The gift cost the state but little
: yet it will not allow its benefits to accru,
n to the whole mass of the people unless
! few men will pay 100000.
The state should endow the college an,
t start it as it has the Reform School. If
n can do credit to itself educating bad boy
; what glorious results would be seen edu
O eating the good ones when means are al
;, ready furnished to pay the teachers an
II buy a farm. The law especially provide
5 that tenth of the fund may be used t
l. purchase a farm and the interest of the re
mainder used every year. After the stat
had performed its duty in providing NOR
means there is strong probability that in
- dividual generosity would be very ofte
n applied to the same purpose; as in Masss
10 chusetts, where thousands have been giver
! In Connecticut $146,000 was donated b
one man, and in New York $3.50 600; an
u to every live agricultural college, gifts
N stock, tools, plants, collections of curios
1t ties &c, &c.
The question, chow to do more goo
with the present means, is worthy of col
=! sideration. Do any of your readers call t
n mind any agricultural fact or experimei
r, that has in the last five years been deve
o. oped by this institution?
T.; President Angel speaks of those WI
have been associated with him and hay
III approved the action taken, and especial
)r mentions Senator Morrill,. No doubt /
re desires to see his ideas carried into practi'
ct at Burlington, but compare the list of stu
les there, as given by "Orleans County
- in his communication, with the studi
= adopted in Illinois (which is appended
he this article) and with Senator Morrill,
e. words in Congress.
N When have the farmers been invited
college halls to hear lectures, discussion
and reports of experiments and progress
VI Never But they are going to give fir
lie course in February or March every whit
b. during the next five years if there is a d
~ mand for it i; and they believe there is
demand when Vermont as well as Ne
VI England is in a ferment of excitement f
he agricultural knowledge in school house
in town halls and city halls farmers meet
II clubs, associations and conventions, v
, President James B. Angel believes tn
" public opinion is not ready for institut.
us He wrote me this in substance in 1868 al
of 1869. He tells J. c. Wilder of Chariot
nd the same, when he comes, full of zeal, frc
~ consultations with prominent men in t
state, among whom was Senator Morri
ny and also l.. I. Tucker of South Royaltc
, a All favored an institute with lectures, &
nd but the wet blankets were thrown by Pr
ident Angel and the Professors. Uni,
| am misinformed, the secretary of t
~ Dairyman's Association, when he was C,
be- lecting the talent of the country to spe
ul- at St. Adams, went to President Angel a
trv desired him to speak any day of the s.
H. sion upon any topic, but received no c
enlargement. He or his professors COT
're not address us at our annual meeting
Did the Orleans Co. Agricultural Society, /
err he could have been at Glover two DAYS
cir ter if he had known the college was
:, have been discussed. In all this l
WI faint shadowings of more good that mig
me have been done with the means at co
We mand.
md AT the State Fair at Burlington, WIFI
thousands of farmers assemble, are Ii
invited to the college halls to hold tn
VI farmers meetings, and thus show that
raj college is the fountain-head of knowlede
ent No! The farmers club is advertised
the city hall, and when 1 appeared tn
IA to read an essay in 1868, found it &C,
D pied by troupe of theatrical performe
an whose door keeper knew nothing about