Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-05-19
President Stockbridge.

The election of practical farmer to the
presidency of an agricultural college, for the
first time in the history of these institutions,
seems to be as pleasing as IL has been sur.
prising to the Intelligent farmers who contrib
ute to the agricultural press One of them,
writing to the Rural New Yorker, says:
g It is so new and refreshing as to require spe-
cial notice and recognition. 1t recognizes special
fitness for the duties to be performed, and is the
first indication that purely literary training may
be dispensed with in the head Of special college
devoted to agriculture and the mechanic arts
Professor Stockbridge has been the working, vital
zing force of that college since its organization
comprehending the duties Of such an institution
and now they have tardily concluded to give
credit for service performed, and acknowledge fit
ness proved. This is a precedent that will bear
frequent repetition Let us hope that these col
leges may, in time, be redeemed and given the
special character intended by the law"
As it has frequently been asserted (and
as, indeed, many of the literary and clerical
gentlemen who, somehow or other, have
found themselves at the head OF agricultural
colleges have striven in public addresses by
long and labored arguments to prove), that
the law did not intend these colleges to be
special schools of agriculture and the me-
chanc arts, but only colleges differing in no
way from the ordinary literary colleges, ex-
cept in giving little more attention to
chemistry, entomology and surveying, we
deem it no more than proper to print what
our own Senator Morrill,, who has the credit
of having originated the idea of such insti-
buttons, and of securing their endowment by
congress, has said on that subject. Answer
ing the objection that they would compete
with literary colleges, he said
"our present literary colleges need have no
more Jealousy of agricultural colleges than a
porcelain mandatory would Of an iron foundry
Ihey noue in separate spheres, Udhom competi- |
ton. The farmer and mechanic require |
special schools and appropriate literature quite as
much as any of the so-caed learned professions |
We need careful, exact and systematic registra- |
ton OF experiments. We need to test the natural |
capability OF soils, and the power OF different |
fertilizers; the relative value OF different grasses
for flesh, fat and milk-givng purposes; the COM |
parative value of gran roots, hay pease, carrots,
potatoes or turnips in pounds of beef, pork or |
mutton; deep blowing as well as drainage; breeds
OF animals; remedies for the potato disease and |
for all the tribes OF insects destructive to crops
What countenance does this give to a
general education in these colleges He
o"Noj ehc idituCi duu uitCudulC
special schools and appropriate literature"
but the presidents of those colleges, utterly
disregarding the law, turn them into or
binary literary colleges, in which nine-tenths
OF the students are educated without any
reference to agriculture and have no inten-
tion of pursuing it. The academy at West
Point is a special military school, but it
would be doing no greater violence to its
intended character, were nine-tenths of its
cadets permitted to pursue a mere literary
course without regard to military sciences,
than is the course pursued at these so-called
agricultural colleges violation of the law
under which they organized And the
especial schools" spoken of by Senator
Morrill, were intended to be as special in
relation to agriculture and the mechanic
arts as is the West Point academy to mil
itary science. Massachusetts has, in this
case, as in many others, pioneered the road
to reform. We hope to see it taken by the
other states, which are in all honor and
honesty bound to administer the fund be-
slowed upon them by congress in the true
spirit and according to the real intent of the
law. There has been far too much "porce-
lain" mixed with our "iron.'