practice, and to adopt such improvements as may more immediately conform to the pursuits of our citizens, and the spirit of our Government; at least to provide a plan of education in some of the Colleges, a part of which shall be more suited for our intercourse with other nations, and more adapted to the energy and enterprise of our people.

To encourage the arts, as applied to manufacturing industry, by a more direct application of the sciences upon the plan now proposed, will be an extension and new application of the benevolent and important system of common schools. It may be presumed that the judicious master would not only permit, but encourage his apprentices to frequent lectures within their reach, sure that the little time so lost to his trade, would be amply repaid by the increased diligence, sobriety and knowledge thereby purchased.'

The moral effect justly to be anticipated upon the youth and middle classes of society should also induce to the proposed object. It will diffuse intelligence amongst a portion of society whose condition has been hitherto almost inaccessible to improvement, and remove that state of ignorance and depression usually incident to and often urged against mechanical pursuits and manufacturing establishments. The laboratory, apparatus, models and specimens now used by Professors might, without prejudice, be allotted to this further purpose. If an augmentation of the cabinet of models and specimens should be required, the importance of the object would justify the hope of further bounty from the Legislature.

The able Professor of Moral Philosophy in Columbia College (Mr. McVickar), with great benefit to the institution and increased reputation to himself, has recently made "Political Economy" the subject of a course of lectures. The Professor of Natural Philosophy in the same College (Mr. Renwick), the Professor of Chemistry (Dr. McNeven), in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, and the Professor of Chemistry (Mr. J. Nott) in Union College, upon suggestions from your committee, have consented to undertake, with the permission of the institutions to which they belong, courses of lectures for the instruction of mechanics, under the authority and sanction of the Regents. The Colleges at New York, Schenectady, Fairfield, Hamilton and Geneva, and perhaps the Academies at Albany and the principal villages, furnish convenient opportunities to make experiments of teaching such branches of education as collateral to the Professorships and the original objects of these institutions. The utility of the scheme would soon be ascertained, and the expediency determined, of hereafter conferring degrees for proficiency in Agriculture, Mechanics and the Useful Arts."

Ter years passed before these ideas of teaching the applied sciences upon a farm and in work-shops were sanctioned in an act of the Legislature, and thirty more before they were fully realized and successfully applied.

It may be interesting to trace the steps which gradually prepared the way. The first was the incorporation by the Legislature of the New York State Agricultural School. The charter of this institution was granted May 6, 1836, and included in its list of corporators a large number of the leading men of the State, headed by William L. Marcy, then Governor. It was proposed to purchase a farm near the city of Albany and erect an Agricultural College.1

Another act was passed May 4, 1844,' creating a new corporation under the former name, and including a splendid array of names as corporators. It was proposed to establish a stock company with a capital of $50,000, in shares of $25, but the location was left to be decided by the corporation. This effort likewise failed, but the subject was discussed every year, and several special reports were made to the Legislature, having reference to this object.'

The Legislature by Concurrent Resolutions passed April 6, 1849, empowered the Governor to appoint one Commissioner from each of the eight Judicial Districts of the State, to meet in Albany on the 16th of May following, to mature a plan for an Agricultural College and Experimental Farm, with a detailed estimate of cost, plan of studies, etc., and report to the next Legislature. The persons appointed were J. Blunt, A. J. Downing, William Risley, S. Cheever, John Grey, E. C. Frost, H. Wager and J. P. Beekman.*

Other reports were made at the next session, and an effort was

'Chap. 259, Laws of 1836.

Reports had been previously made upon the subject by the State Agricultural Society (Senate Doc. 79, 1833), by a joint committee of the Legislature (Senate Doc. 97, 1834, and Assem. Doc. 311, 1834), and by a committee on Governor's Message (Senate Doc. 110, 1834). The act was amended April 6, 1838 (Chap. 158), by extending the time limited for organization, but nothing was effected under these

acts.

Chap. 261, Laws of 1844.

3 Report on an Agricultural and Scientific School and Experimental Station (Assem. Doc. 153, 1847). Report of the Committee on Agriculture relative to an Experimental Farm and Agricultural College (Assem. Doc. 169, 1847). Report relative to the establishment of an Experimental Farm and Work-shop for Mechanical Operations and a School for the promotion of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts (Assem. Doc. 187, 1847). Memorial on behalf of the New York State Agricultural Society for the establishment of an Agricultural School (Assem. Doc. 65, 1849). Report of the Committee on Agriculture on so much of the Governor's Message as relates to an Agricultural School (Assem. Doc. 212, 1849).

4 This Commission made an elaborate report (Assem. Doc. 30, 1850).

made to secure the location at Genesee College (Lima). These efforts were continued in 1851 and 1852."

In 1853, these repeated efforts led to the incorporation of an institution to be known as The New York State Agricultural College, incorporated April 15, 1853.'

The act was brief, simply naming John Delafield, Henry Wager, B. P. Johnson, William Kelly, John A. King, N. B. Kidder, Joel W. Bacon, William Buel, Tallmadge Delafield and Robert J. Swan, as corporators, with such as might associate with them, for the establishment of a College, with a farm of not less than 300 acres, and as follows:

"The plan of instruction embraces the following branches of knowledge: Practical and Scientific Agriculture, Chemistry and its manipulations, so far as it may be usefully connected with Agriculture, Mathematics and Mechanics, Surveying and Engineering, Geology and Botany, the practical management of the farm, of the dairy, and of the various kinds of live stock; also such other branches of knowledge as may be deemed useful and proper.”

Mr. John Delafield, who engaged with great zeal and enterprise in this undertaking, continued his efforts for its establishment until his death in the fall of 1853. His death was a severe loss to the agricultural interests of the State, and especially to the Trustees of the proposed College, of which he had been President.

In 1855, the people of Ovid, in the county where Mr. D. had resided, made an effort to procure subscriptions to the stock of the College, and the sum of over $40,000 was raised for the College, if located at that place, and a farm of over 600 acres adjoining Seneca lake, in that town, was purchased.

Report of the Special Committee on the Agricultural College and Experimental Farm (Assem. Doc. 104, 1850). Memorial of the Genesee College in relation to an Agricultural School (Assem. Doc. 86, 1850). Memorial of William Buel and T. C. Peters on the subject of a division of the State into Agricultural Districts and for Agricultural Colleges (Assem. Doc. 158, 1850).

2 Report on so much of the Governor's Message as relates to an Agricultural College and Mechanical School, and on the Memorial of the State Agricultural Society on the same subject (Assem. Doc. 33, 1851). Report of the Minority of the Committee on the subject of an Agricultural College and Experimental Farm (Assem. Doc. 116, 1851). Report on so much of the Governor's Message as relates to an Agricultural Institution and an Experimental Farm (Assem. Doc. 100, 1852). 2 Chap. 247, Laws of 1853, p. 536.

Report of the Committee on Agriculture, on the establishment of an Agricul tural College, etc. (Assem. Doc. 36, 1853).

Through the agency of the Rev. Amos Brown, Principal of the Ovid Academy, and others, an act was procured March 31, 1856,1 authorizing the Comptroller to loan to the Trustees the sum of $40,000, from the income of the United States Deposit Fund, for the payment of the land and the erection of buildings, a mortgage being given to secure repayment, on the 1st day of January, 1877, without interest. The sum of $40,000 was also required to be raised and applied by the Trustees as a condition precedent to the loan. The Trustees were required to report annually to the Legislature the condition of its financial affairs, the number of students, its income and disbursements, and such other matters as the Trustees might deem expedient." This act was amended April 6, 1863, by allowing the money to be advanced from the Treasury generally, as the Deposit Fund had failed to supply the amount.'

On a commanding site overlooking the lake, and a beautiful stretch of fine farming land, the buildings were erected, upon plans prepared by S. E. Hewes, an architect of Albany. The main building was to consist of the central portion with two square towers and wings of 60 by 84 feet, and 58 by 128 feet respectively, four stories high, and furnishing rooms for 150 students. The whole, when complete, was designed to accommodate 400, with every needed convenience. A plan of instruction and operation was prepared, and on or about the 1st of December, 1860, the institution was opened under the Presidency of Major M. R. Patrick, and a competent corps of Professors.

The war that commenced the next spring, drew the President into the army as a General of volunteers, and with other causes effectually suspended operations before they had been fully commenced. The property reverted to the State, and in 1865 was used for the establishment of the Willard Asylum for the Insane, large additions being made to the accommodations by the erection of other buildings.

This institution made no reports to the Regents. Its separate reChap. 67, Laws of 1856.

Report on the petition for aid to establish the New York State Agricultural College. (Senate Doc. 61, 1855.)

Memorial of the friends of the New York State Agricultural College. (Assem. Doc. 64, 1855.)

Other amendments were passed February 5, 1857 (Chap. 16), allowing an increase in the number of trustees; April 6 1857 (Chap. 275), providing for case of deficiency of income from funds, and April 3, 1860 (Chap. 156), relating to mortgage, etc.

ports to the Legislature afford minute details concerning its inception, rise, decline and final failure.'

No effectual efforts were made to secure to this institution the benefits of the Congressional land grants made for the benefit of Colleges for instruction in Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts in

1862.

That endowment was tendered to the "People's College" at Havana, but the declining health of its principal patron did not allow of new efforts, and it finally passed to Cornell University.

PEOPLE'S COLLEGE.

Plans for a system of education which should combine intellectual, moral and physical education upon an improved system, having been under discussion for some years, the movement led to the procuring of an act from the Legislature, on the 12th of April, 1853, under the name of the "People's College," for the promotion of Literature, Science, Arts and Agriculture.'

The capital stock of the corporation was fixed at $250,000, but this might be increased to $500,000. Shares $1, entitling to a vote, and no stockholder was to have more than one vote. The Trustees were to be divided into six classes, one class to be chosen annually by the stockholders, and they were vested with the usual powers of a corporation and a College. They were to appoint three Commissioners to select a location for the College, whenever $50,000 had been subscribed and paid. Each pupil and teacher was to be required to devote some hours, each, of five days in each week (excepting Saturdays and Sundays), to bona fide useful labor in some branch of productive industry. The number of hours of labor was not to exceed twenty, nor fall below ten in each week, and each student was to be credited, and ultimately paid for his labor, less the cost of qualifying him to perform it effectively.

Facilities for Agricultural and Mechanical instruction were to be

1 Annual Reports of Trustees, 1858, Assem. Doc. 154; 1859, Assem. Doc. 118; 1860, Assem. Doc. 27; 1861, Assem. Doc. 20; 1863, S. 78, A. 110; 1864, Senate Doc. 55; 1865, Senate Doc. 39; 1869, Senate Doc. 81. The report of 1869 is final and historical.

2 The first Trustees named in the act were D. C. McCallum, Washington Hunt, George J. Pumpelly, J. R. Speed, S. S. Post, David Reese, Gurdon Evans, Horace Greeley, James H. Snow, A. W. Jackson, Harrison Howard, William Morgan, T. Lindsley, A. J. Wynkoop, W. C. Rhodes, W. H. Smuller, James M. Ellis, James R. Backus, William H. Banks, J. J. DeForest, J. G. Russell, Oliver G. Steele, Robert Green and M. H. Davis.