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PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE. 27

and evergreens, and in making preparations for a model farm. As it is designed that this school shall, in a manner, sustain itself by the industry of the pupils, only a comparatively small tuition fee will be charged. It is expected that it will be open for instruction the present year.

In the winter of 1856, the legislature of Maryland passed an act appropriating§6,000 per annum for the perpetual support of an agricultural college, on condition that 850, 000 should be raised by private subscription for its establishment. It may here be stated that the trustees were greatly encouraged and stimulated to increased exertion to raise the required amount by subscription, to entitle them to the endowment from the State, by a munificent donation, volun- tarily made, by Dr. William Newton Mercer, a native of Maryland, but now a citizen of Louisiana. The homestead of Mr. Charles B. Calvert, situated near Bladensburg, in Prince George's county, nine miles northeast of Washington, comprising 428 acres, has recently been purchased; plans and specifications are in preparation for the buildings, and arrangements are being made to procure materials for their erection. The soil of this farm varies in quality and condition, affording a fair opportunity for experiment. It consists chiefly of rich meadows, artificially drained, dry bottom-lands. undulating pas- tures and moderate hills, abounding in wood, and irrigated by a rapid stream of pure water, sufficiently copious to afford any motive

power or other useful purpose the establishment may require. The

site of the proposed college buildings is a commanding eminence, so fully exposed to constant ventilation as must entirely exempt it from miasmatic influence, which, it is believed, will render the locality permanently healthful. 4 b

The ultimate end aimed at by the trustees is the foundation of an *Educational Institution“ in its most comprehensive sense. Its defi- nition of education is, that it is the united symmetrical development and instruction of the religious, the intellectual, and the physical qualities of the man. It recognizes the whole man in all the departments of his being as the object of its care. Its aim is not merely to instruct, nor to impart knowledge, but to awaken, develop, train, and discipline all the talent, inborn powers, and faculties of man, that he may com- mand them for the high and noble uses of. which they may be capable, or for which they were designed. It claims for the farmer or the mechanic, or for whomsoever its care may be sought, first, his devel- opment as a man, trained and fitted to the full extent of his capacity, for all the duties of a good citizen. To this end, it offers him the advantage of the most approved system of moral and intellectual culture; and superadds to these, for his physical training, moderate and systematic exercises in the field and the workshop, as the best means of laying the foundation of future health and energy, in a well developed, robust, physical constitution. Thus, incidentally, if not primarily, the scheme embraces the best practical training in agricul- ture and mechanic arts. The student will acquire skill and handicraft in the use of tools and implements, from the hammer or the hoe to the scythe or the plough; he will learn the construction and management