IOWA STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

In setting forth the comparative advantages of this locality, the Iowa State Agricultural College, situated here, deserves prominent mention, as its established success places it high in the list of this class of educational agencies. The opinion has to some extent obtained, not only among men of cultivated minds, but also among other classes of people, that the system of education represented by institutions of this nature, can never be made a practical success. The earlier and fruitless efforts in this direction should be regarded as simply experimental, and their failure attributed, not to any radical defect in the system, but to some latent causes not then understood. Not until within a comparatively short period of time, has it been generally conceded that those pursuing the humble avocation of farming, or engaged in any other industrial pursuit, needed, or could make useful in their calling, scientific knowledge. The old routine of farm labor, almost universally followed until within a score of years, and still by far too common among American farmers, forbade the application of what its votaries styled “book farming,” in its practice. All improvements of those implements used in agricultural pursuits, have been regarded as innovations, by that class of men, who have more reverence for the follies of their fathers, than for the wisdom developed by scientific research.

The man who, in early times, balanced the bushel of corn upon his horse, with a stone of equal weight, may be accounted wise in comparison with the farmer of the present day, who persists in the cultivation of his impoverished acres, without system or knowledge, adhering to the unprofitable and ruinous ways of his ancestors, simply because those ways have descended to him as an heirloom. But, despite the opposition of self-wise fogies, the wooden mold-board has given place to that of burnished steel, and the primitive hand sickle has been supplanted by the seemingly perfect reaper of the present day. But while the invention and perfection of farm machinery has relieved the tiller of the soil of half his labors, changing indeed the whole system of farming as practiced by our fathers—multiplying almost without limit the gross agricu1iural products of our country, it has, also, by encouraging wide, rather than good cultivation, inaugurated and is fostering a system (if that may be termed systematic which is utterly devoid of system), which, in the absence of scientific knowledge, and its practical application to farming, is likely to prove so exhaustive to the soil as to result in disaster and ruin. Experience, though it may have been lightly regarded, is teachlng us the valuable, and much needed iesson, that a knowledge of the chemical combinations of the different soils and the adaptation of certain crops to these different soils,is not only needful, but indispensable to successful farming. The agriculturalist is not benefitted by that knowledge which enables him to secure large and certain crops, unless with it comes the greater and more important lesson, by which he is taught not only the necessity of avoiding, but also the way to avoid the ruin of his land by an injudicious system of cultivation. The true mission of agricultural. colleges is to supply the industrial classs with a familiar understanding, not only of the theory, but also the practice of the employment or pursuit in life which they may individually adopt; not as was formerly believed, and too generally praticed—to found a rural home where the sons of the rich, might be taught in amateur farming at the public charge. Institutions deserving the name of agricultural colleges, now teach such branches of science as will prove an intelligent guide to the practical farmer or housewife—making learning auxiliary to physical effort—guiding the strong hand by the active brain, thus utilizing scientific knowledge and giving dignity to labor. The necessity for systematic improvement in agriculture has long been realized by those who have given this subject earnest thought and men of philanthropic proclivities, have, from time to time, sought out “many inventions” by which they have hoped to lessen the labors and increase the happiness, of the industrial classes. These efforts have been successful in the attainment of the end sought in the degree that they have impressed the minds of those in whose interest they have been undertaken, of the necessity for scholarly attainments and mental culture, to properly fit a man to engage in any puruit in life, however humble, with a fair prospect of success. While it is true, that for untold centuries, nature in her silent and mysterious operations has been, in the great west, maturing the elements of fabulous agricultural wealth, we should bear in mind in connection with this truth, that in the portions of our country already subjected to a long course of American cultivation these stores of latent wealth have only been saved from utter exhaustion by artificial appliances. Nature, is true to herself, and we cannot, with impunity, appropriate to our use the riches of mother earth without recompense. But for the aid of science, as applied to agriculture, the reclamation of these wasted lands would of necessity have been left to her subtle but tardy hand.

The act which established the Iowa Agricultural College, for the purpose of giving academic instruction to the industrial classes, was passed by the State Legislature in eighteen hundred and fifty-eight. By this act, the sum of ten thousand dollars was appropriated, for the purchase of a farm for the location of the college buildings, and for experiments in agriculture. While it is true that in the course of events this enterprise would have found successful advocates, yet every citizen of our noble State should feel a grateful sense of obligation to those far-seeing and earnest men, who were its early and enthusiastic friends. The names of the most prominent of these noble men should ever be found associated with the enterprise they so ably aided to inaugurate. Hon. R. A. Richardson, Hon. B. F. Gue, Hon. Wm. Lundy, Hon. Chas. Foster, J. B. Grinnell, Suel Foster, and Wm. Duane Wilson will ever be regarded in this connection, as the benefactors of the citizens of our State.