serve as models of convenience, taste and economy, and accommodate the head farmer and his assistants :

3. A SCHOOL BUILDING, for the accommodation of teachers and scholars :

4. A LIBRARY and PHILOSOPHICAL APPARATUS : 5. STOCK and IMPLEMENTS for the farm

and,.

6. SHOPS for the construction of farm implements and machinery, for the use of the farm, for the illustration of mechanical science, and to afford practical instructions to the pupils in mechanics.

These items of expense, which may be considered preliminary and permanent, together with the cost of the furniture required for the school building, are estimated at $7,500.

1. The plan of Education might embrace,-Practical instructions in the various operations and labors of the farm, the garden, the orchards and the shops: and,

2. The study of the natural sciences generally, mathematics, mechanics, chemistry and drawing, so far as these may conduce or become subservient to agricultural improvement, -together with such other branches of knowledge as will qualify the students for the higher duties of civil life,—such as will fit them to become independent electors, discreet jurors, faithful magistrates, and wise legislators.

As prerequisites to admission to the school, the pupils might be required to possess a good common school education, to be at least fourteen years of age, and of good moral character. Four years might constitute a course of studies; and the internal regulations and police of the school might be conformed, in a measure, to those of our military academy.

A department of the farm should be set apart for experiments in husbandry, and the details and results of these experiments accurately registered. The garden and the orchard should contain all the good hardy fruits, and specimens of all hardy plants, that may be useful on the farm, in the arts, in commerce, or that are ornamental,-in order that the relative value of different species and varieties may be determined, and their mode of culture, and process of curing,

taught to the pupils, and the approved kinds furnished for public distribution.

To put the School into operation there will be required,— a principal, professors and teachers,—a steward and servants, for the school;

A manager, laborers and assistants for the farm;

Machinists and assistants for the shops; and

A practical and scientific manager for the garden and orchard.

The number of officers and assistants which will be required, must depend upon contingencies: and of course the committee do not pretend to state with precision, in their estimate, the amount of their salaries and pay.

The proceeds of the school and the farm may be expected to increase for some years, and will materially depend on the terms of tuition. The committee have assumed, as reasonable data, that the number of pupils would average 200, and the average produce of the farm amount to $4,000 per annum, for the first four years. Upon the assumed data, then, the

estimate would exhibit the following result.

Preliminary Expenses.

The Annual Receipts are computed as follows : Board and tuition of 200 pupils, at $150 per ann. $30,000 Produce of farm,

4,000

$34,000

Thus the total expense of establishing the school, and of maintaining it the first year, is estimated at $80,950, and the income, after the first year, it is believed, will be amply sufficient to defray all expenses. Yet to meet contingencies that may occur, and to make up for any deficiency in the estimate, the committee think that an appropriation of $100,000, the surplus to be invested for the benefit of the institution, will ensure usefulness and permanency to the school, and prove amply sufficient to meet all its wants. This sum, if equalized among the population of the state, would operate as a tax of about five cents to each inhabitant.

Your committee have thus complied with the requisitions of the society, in submitting the plan of an Agricultural School, and an estimate of the expense necessary to establish and put the same into successful and permanent operation. It only remains for them to state their opinion of its utility.

The agriculture of a country affords the best criterion of its prosperity. Whether we compare kingdoms, states, counties, districts or farms, the condition of this branch of labor, which they severally exhibit, is a sure index, not only of the pecuniary, but of its moral condition. It is no less an axiom founded in truth, that agriculture prospers or languishes, in proportion to the science and skill of the men who manage its labors. It is not the natural fertility of the soil, so much as the intelligence and industry of those who till it, which gives to husbandry its interests and its rewards. The man

who devotes the energies of a highly cultivated mind, to the improvement of this primitive and all important branch of labor, is a public benefactor. Cincinnatus did more to immortalize his name, and to command our applause, by his love of rural labors, than by his military exploits. Washington, amid all the honors that irradiated his brow, sought his highest pleasures in the business and retirement of the farm And it was the first remark of our present chief magistrate, to the writer, after introduction, that he would not forego the pleasures of the farm for all the honors and emoluments that this nation could confer upon him. Education enables man to appreciate the wonderful provisions which God has made for his happiness in rural life, and imparts to him the ability of diffusing instruction and happiness to multitudes around him.

It should be the policy of government, therefore, which watches over the interest of all, to infuse into the labors of husbandry, all the lights of science and knowledge—to take care to expand and elevate the minds of those who are to give it efficiency and character, and to call forth skill and industry by proffered rewards. With us these considerations possess peculiar force. Our population and business are emphatically agricultural, and every aid which is extended to this class, benefits, indirectly, every portion of the community. Agricul ture constitutes the fountains of the thousand rills, which, swelling and traversing every part of the state, propel the spindle and the hammer of the artizan and the manufacturer, and finally, by their union, make up the mighty stream of commerce which unceasingly flows into the Atlantic.

That our agriculture is susceptible of improvement-that the products of its labors may be doubled, nay quadrupled, must be apparent to those who have compared our husbandry with that of some European countries, or who have contrasted, at home, the well cultivated district, or farm, with those which are badly managed. How is the desired amelioration to be effected? How can a better husbandry be so well promoted, as by teaching it to our youth ?-by sowing

our seed in the spring-time of life? Prejudice no where retains a stronger hold than among farmers who have approached or passed the meridian of life. While some retain old practices, for want of confidence in their knowledge to guide them in better ones, others lack the first requisites to improvement-a consciousness that their system is not the most useful; while not a few are influenced, in their hostility to public means of improvement, by the desire to keep things to their own level. If we would efficiently improve this great branch of business, and elevate its character, as well as the character of those who are engaged in its operations, we must do what universal experience has shown to be the only sure method :—we must lay our foundation in the rising generation-we must teach the young idea how to shoot-we must instruct the head to help the hands. Our physical and mental powers are twin sisters. They lighten each other's labor, and mutually impart a zest to each other's enjoyments. And as it is becoming common to introduce manual labor into literary schools, it is courteous that literature and science should requite the civility, by associating with the inmates of schools of labor.

Agricultural Schools, although of modern date, have nevertheless been established in most of the states of Europe, and their utility has been fully demonstrated. Who has not heard of the school of Fellenburgh, at Hoffwyl, or of Von Thayer, at Moegelin-to which young men are sent from every part of Europe, and even from America? In France and Prussia Agricultural Schools have been founded and maintained by the governments. If they are found to be beneficial, and worthy of governmental support, in countries where power is vested in the few, how much more salutary must they prove here where our institutions receive the impress of their character from the many, and where the perpetuity of these institutions depends emphatically upon the intelligence and virtue of the agricultural population. Despotism will never flourish in the American soil, but through the ignorance, and we may say consequent depravity, of its cultivators.