The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-12-09


study. 30 with the chemical laboratory, the Ii
brary, etc. 1t Ia the same with the botanic gar
dens the varieties Of stock fruits, nurseries, veg
etable gardens, farm crops, implements, mead
ows, pastures, and the furniture of q college like
this. They "pay" by being means of iIlustra-
ton, complementing the lessons Of the text book
and lectures. They pay by being place On which
he practices what he is afterwards to do.
Since chemists knowledge is more accurate
after he has had practice in the chemical labora-
tory, therefore, here students work half year in
the chemical laboratory, three hours day, after
they have had their halfyear's course Of chemical
lectures. The surveyors knowledge ia more to
be relied on If he has actually used the compass
and level. surveyed lands, calculated contents,
| and made plats. Students receive such practice
here. In the same way they have practice In
grating, transplantiDg, the use OF farm and
garden implements, and in the manual opera
tons OF farm and garden. The college thus i'm.
parts the practical knowledge it Was established
to teach. Ii the labor teaches, YES familiarity
with mechanical, botanical, horticultural and
agricultural principles, and bestows practical
skill, so far as such limited exercise as three
hours work day in varied labor can go, in so
far it does pay like any other expenditure for
sustaining an educational institution.
The labor system s, OF course, not without its
expense to the institution. Tools and teams are
required in greater numbers than on farm of
equal size especially almost all the students
work at one time. Three hours labor of boy
varied to give him instruction Is not worth 60
"
work applied where it would be most profitable.
1t ia limited also to set time; and ends, unless
great loss would accrue. irrespective OF the con-
dition OF the work. Besides, labor has to be
planned for q large force for three hours, sue.
ceeded and being succeeded by very small one.
To make the labor educational requires also the
constant superintendenee of skiled professors
and foremen, who must be paid
But all education 10 costly. No student in
public institution of learning pays his expenses.
Buildings, libraries. museums, laboratories, in
struction, are ell he free gift of communities or
individuals to the students. Technical instruc-
| ton is costly. And II the expense OF our labor
system be reckoned up and taken as educational,
il will not be found to be more expensive by the
| hour than chemical, mining, mechanical instruc-
| ton usually is.
| Tue college is sometimes compared with med
ical school or 9 law school, and it is asked why
should pay for what the students need education
| ally. The cases are not similar. lu medical
| school student hardly does more than try his
hand at dissection; he may plead case or two 10
moot court. But with us labor is a daily thing;
it is three hours at time, and it is valuable to
| the institution If you count in the expenses OF
| carrying on the labor system, the wages OF the
| foreman, the interest in additional tools and the
like students labor IL no profit. 30 ii you count
the antecedent expenses without which dissec-
| lions and moot courts could not be, they may be
| found to be expensive. But il these are counted
among the necessary expenses OF the college as
| an educational institution, as l believe they
should be, then the labor OF students is worth to
| the college all we pay for it. II 10 continuous
productive labor 1 think student in lsbora-
| torv who earned something every day from year
| TO year by bis analyses would desire share OF
the profits. The plan of paying wages il quite
general, but not universal, with the agricultural
| colleges.
When the institution Was first started sixteen
| cents an hour was paid as the highest wages.
President Williams. in his first report to the
board, April /, 1853, says of the college, "a
| an ct, IN
| support himself by his own labor while acquiring
| his education," and he adds, 'Whether the stu
| dent, by three hours labor in summer and two
| and half in winter, could board himself, is not
| thoroughly subdued." l think he convinced
| that the students labor would not enable them
to Day their board, for before he left he suggested
! a plan to the board. This was the plan after
wards adopted, Of having the long vacation in
the winter 80 as to afford students an opportunity
| to teach.
| subsequently wages were still further lessened,
] as it was thought the labor WAS Of more value to
| the students educatioDally, until the maximum
| wages now are eight cents an hour for the regu-
| larly required work OF students.
| The winter vacation, the small wages received
| for work, the plan Of boarding at cost-a require
| ment OF law-does place an education in this IN
| stitution within the means Of many who could not
| or would not otherwise furnish it to their eons.
Many students pay in but about $40 year to
the college, and many OF them still less; some OF
those who work Saturdays have only from s45 to
$50 to pay in for year Of board and instruction
and all college dues.
| EXPERIMENTS.
To experiment for the sake Of discovering
knowledge and to teach, that is, to impart exist-
| ing knowledge, are distinct things. Both are
necessary agriculture, as in other arts OF life.
They are not necessarily connected in an agricul-
tural college, for the. larger number OF agricul-
tura colleges have no farms for field and feeding
| experiments. M at OF the European experiment
| stations OF Europe have no college in connection
| with them. Doubt has been expressed whether
instructions and experimenting can go well
together Thus Prof Hilgard. late Of the Uni
| versty of Michigan, now OF California University,
says: ut is my opinion that in not few instances
the educational interests have suffered by being
| subordinated to- or even too closely co-ordlnated
| with, the experimental work"
| In my opinion experiments should be conduct
ed every year at our Agricultural College, and a
little farther on | will endeavor to show why.
But at present l ask which purpose is the main
| one experimenting or instruction OF students?
To say that one purpose is the main one, is not,
| of course, to say the other is not OF very great
Importance but il one purpose is comparatively
| the main one, which is 1t!
| IT we can Judge OF the various enactments OF
| Congress and the State, the college ia primarily
one for instruction of students. The debates in
| Congress and in our own State the addresses
| made at the opening OF the college, the example
OF other institutions, all indicate the same. The
good to be expected 1IOm IL ~, primarily, tAe
i theoretical and practical instruction Of students.
Medicine is science whose underlying principles
are but little better known than those OF agricul-
| ture. The re is abundant need, and abundant OPP
portunity for original invesg alton ia the healing
art Blu, from it's schools we look first for edg'
neering much original investigation is still re-
CURED The strength of materials, the laws OF
fluids flowing through channels, and other sub
| iects sfford abundant room for experiments; but
from the schools Of civil engineering we expect
primarily the making Of civil engineers, capable
| of using what knowledge there is to be impaired
in the science. Keeping up with the advance of
knowledge in any department., giving instruction
to classes by leoturing, experimenting practice,
is considered usually sufficiently laborious work
for corps of professors in any institution, and
the world is glad if here and there one takes
upon himself to add to the sum OF human knoWi-
edge.
Nothing was more natural, however, seeing the
many problems that agriculture presented for
solution, than to hope that the union of profess
sors, laboratories and farms might result in a
| rapid advance of the art, and the speedy estab-