On the 20th of December, in the company of several of your number, I visited the land upon which your College is to be established, and made such study of it as was practicable under the circumstances, the ground being frozen and covered with snow. I then verbally suggested the main features of a plan for laying it out with reference to the location of buildings and other improvements designed to fit it for the purposes you have in view.

I was afterwards instructed to form a plan in accordance with these suggestions, which I shall proceed to do as soon as I receive the map of the property which is now in preparation.

The following preliminary report is made at this time at the request of your President. Having obtained my knowledge of the ground under the circumstances which have been mentioned, and having received no measurements or other exact advice in regard to it, my observations must be rather indefinite in character.

It will be convenient, in the first place, to look upon the property as if it were divided into two parts, which I shall designate respectively the eastern section, and the western section. The division between them would begin at the south line fence, a few hundred yards east of the public road, and be carried straight to the north line fence on a course which would take it well clear to the eastward of the large barn standing near the north end.

All of the cleared land on the east side of this dividing line has a surface on which a plough or reaping machine could be conveniently worked. That on the west side of it is considerably more undulating, and has several steep hill sides. It is bordered by the Stillwater river, the bank of which is a public footway, much used at certain times. There are several buildings standing upon it, and it is divided into two long narrow strips by a broad and crooked public road. If this western section should be further divided into fields, therefore, and especially if the division of these fields should be made [167] in such way that the whole of each could be conveniently cultivated and the crops upon it harvested at the same period, these fields would necessarily be very small, their boundaries very irregular, and their cultivation consequently inconvenient and expensive. This section is therefore much less desirable to be used for the cultivation of staple farm crops than the other.

A portion of the eastern section is covered by wood, but as many as eight rectangular fields, of about ten acres each, could, as I judged, be formed on the cleared land, in each of which, after improvement by draining, the whole surface might be advantageously occupied by one crop.

There would still remain a considerable area suitable for pasture and woodland.

It is obvious, under these circumstances, that the greater part of the section should be assigned exclusively to simple farming purposes, or that if any of it should be put to other uses, it should be only narrow gores along the boundaries, or a small part of the present woodland, which is all in that part of it at the greatest distance from the public road.

Suitable ground is found for an orchard on the north end of the western section, the public road here being carried so far toward the west side of the property, as to leave a considerable area for the purpose, the surface of which is on an easy slope to the south. It should be improved by a narrow but close plantation of evergreens along the north line fence, the effect of which would be to extend the season for the ripening of the fruit, and reduce the danger of injury to the trees, or the premature falling of their fruit in high winds.

The most convenient place for the barns, stables and other farm-buildings would be east and south of this orchard, near where there is a large barn at present. At this point they would be between the farming land on one side and the orchard and the public road on the other, and a lane on the north side of the farming land would connect them directly with the pasture and wood-land.

There is a farm-house now standing near this position, pleasantly situated, and facing southwardly. Its front door is on the side toward the public road, and its back door toward the ground assigned to the barns and orchard. It is in a suitable position therefore for the residence of the Farm Superintendent.

The only other dwelling-house on the property occupies a commanding position west of the public road, near the south line. By making some changes, which could be accomplished at moderate cost, this house might be assigned, until the institution is more liberally endowed, for the residence of the President. It stands upon a table from which the ground falls in every direction. This circumstance suggests that the Arboretum and Botanic Garden which will be a necessary part of the institution should be formed in this vicinity, it being desirable that ground of different exposures should be appropriated to this purpose in order to accommodate plants of [168] different degrees of hardiness; to give to some the advantage of shade and prolonged protection of snow, to others that of early spring, and defence from the north winds. In no other part of the property can these advantages be had.

From considerations of taste and economy all ground devoted to horticultural or gardening purposes, except the kitchen garden, should be connected with the Arboretum and Botanic Garden. To accomplish this it would be best to change the course of the public road so that it should avoid the hill which it now ascends for no purpose except to approach a single house. Carried near the foot of the slope to the eastward it will have easier grades, without increased distance, and the property will be better divided.

The kitchen garden may be placed upon the ground sloping south from the site assigned to the barns, where not only the exposure but the soil is suitable for it.

Between the hill assigned to the Botanic Garden and the slope proposed to be occupied by the orchard, the Farm Superintendent’s house and the kitchen garden, the river sweeps in nearer to the farm fields than at any other point, and between the road and the river, there is a piece of low ground which is slightly flooded in times of high freshet. Owing to this circumstance it is in rough condition, and somewhat encumbered with drift-stuff. Its liability to overflow could be prevented by throwing up a low embankment for a short distance on the river bank, and the ground could then be easily made good meadow land. Thus improved it would form a suitable green and parade ground for the military drill of the students, which is required by law. It would not be larger than is necessary for that purpose, and being too low for building sites, it is required for no other purpose remaining unprovided for.

The library, museum, laboratory, lecture and class rooms of the institution should be situated, as nearly as practicable, at a point which shall be generally central to the farm fields, the barns and stables, the orchards, the Botanic Garden and the vegetable garden. Such a point is found upon the nearest elevated ground to the centre of the proposed green, and opposite the middle of the bend of the river. The public road passes at the foot of the slope of this ground, and the buildings would front upon it, and toward the green.

The houses in which the students would board and lodge could be conveniently placed adjoining these buildings.

A suitable position for workshops would be formed on the west side of the road, and between it and the river, north of the green.

Should the above suggestions be carried out, the present public road would become the street of a village, with the workshops and the Farm Superintendent’s house at one end, the President’s house at the other, the chapel, library and museum forming the centre.

In my judgment such an arrangement would be in the best taste, and would be more convenient, while it would be less expensive than any other.

The chief advantage it offers is that the students would receive their [169]

[170] education, and especially that their tastes would be cultivated and habits formed under conditions corresponding, so far as it would be possible to make them correspond, to the ordinary circumstances in which they must be expected to live afterwards, if the College should accomplish its object of giving a liberal education to men who are to remain members of the industrial classes.

The arrangement has also the advantage of being adapted to a very small or a very large establishment. That this last is a desideratum of considerable value will appear from the following considerations:

The first and most important study of your College will be a study of means and methods for giving a liberal education to young men without unfitting them for or disinclining them to industrial callings. This is a simple matter in theory, but the fact is that it has never yet been accomplished in any establishment large enough to accommodate forty students. What is most important then at the outset is to secure to your President and his assistants of the faculty, opportunity to feel their way, gradually, safely and surely, toward a system which shall be thoroughly well adapted to secure the end for which the College has been founded. The State of Maine has an unusual proportion of worthy men among its citizens, who have acquired great wealth in the pursuit of the industrial callings. It is impossible that they should not have a special respect for and sympathy with the purpose of your College. But such men are proverbially cautious and distrustful of theoretical conclusions and experimental undertakings. When the practical success of your faculty has once been fully demonstrated on a small scale, and the public confidence has thus been fairly earned, it may reasonably be hoped that the institution will be abundantly endowed by the public liberality. The scale of the system can then be enlarged to any extent that may be desirable.

It may, however, be questioned whether I have allowed ground room enough for the buildings which will be eventually required. It becomes necessary therefore, to form some idea of a limit to the process of enlargement.

Accepting the views so ably presented last year by Mr. Barnes in the Maine Farmer, and since incorporated in the Report of the Secretary of your State Board of Agriculture, no larger number of students will ever need to be accommodated than can be worked during such part of each day as would be necessary for them to fairly earn their board in ordinary agricultural operations upon the land of the institution. It is true that more land may be acquired, but beyond a certain point, the area to be worked cannot be extended without taking the students an inconvenient distance from their lecture and class rooms. There is a corresponding point, therefore, beyond which the number of students to be accommodated here will never be extended. If an additional number should still need to be provided for it would be better to take a farm in another part of the State, and form another or branch College. It is not necessary to determine exactly what this maximum number would be, it being obvious that it would not exceed that for which ample building [171] accommodations might be provided within the area which has been designated.

The minimum of accommodation to be had in view in the first buildings to be erected is a more difficult question. It would not for instance be worthwhile to build at all for the accommodation of one or two scholars; nor would it be sound economy to build houses barely large enough for ten pupils next year, even though it should be determined to receive no more than that number, when it might be reasonably anticipated that, after three or four years, accommodation would be needed for a hundred or more.

A class of from five to ten students, well prepared by a superior common-school education, so that no time need be lost in studies which might just as well be pursued elsewhere, might be formed next spring, some temporary accommodation, suitable for the summer, being provided for them, before any of the College buildings proper are erected. These students would have special advantages in living on the ground, while the mechanics were employed upon the buildings, and the preliminary improvements of the farm were being planned and undertaken, and these advantages, together with the more intimate personal intercourse they would have with their instructors, would offset the lack of buildings, of apparatus, and well-organized methods. A second class might be taken on the following year; and each succeeding year, as the faculty acquired experience and confidence, and the methods of instruction and discipline were perfected, the number of the freshman class could be enlarged with advantage, until the whole number of students be as large as the faculty could at any time be expected to efficiently supervise. As long as the number of the faculty shall not exceed that which can be fairly paid by so much of the income from the present endowment as you could probably afford to appropriate to this purpose, I presume that you will hardly think it advisable to allow more than forty students to a class, a number which would probably be reached within a few years. In that case it would be bad economy to form any class-room even next year, of a size barely large enough for a smaller number than forty.

Allowing for the occasional accommodation of the Trustees and other visitors in each room, and for standing-room for apparatus which it may be desired to place before the classes, the following would seem to be the minimum of accommodation which could be economically provided for class rooms and halls for general meetings of the College respectively:

Each room for class instruction, seats for fifty.

Each hall for special meetings, seats for two hundred.

An idea of the minimum of accommodation for boarding and lodging cannot be reached until a plan of government and discipline for the College has been formed, which involves a duty that can hardly be definitely undertaken with much profit except by the person upon whom the chief responsibility for success in these all important respects will eventually devolve.

If the object were merely to accommodate the students at the least [172] possible expense, the more they were dealt with at wholesale, (that is to say, the more nearly the arrangements approached in character to those which would be economical if it was shelter and feed for so many head of live stock that was to be provided,) the better. In that case, questionably the whole would be brought under the roof of one common barn or barrack-like building. But it is absolutely essential to the success of the institution that during the four years in which students shall be subject to its direct influence, certain tastes, inclinations and habits shall be established with them. These tastes, inclinations and habits are such as they can afterwards continue to follow, exercise and gratify under the conditions which ordinarily surround citizens who are actively and usefully and satisfactorily engaged in the pursuit of the common industrial avocations of an American community. So far as the College shall fail in this respect, it must fail to accomplish the sole end had in view in its endowment. In making a plan of arrangements for the board and lodging of the students, therefore, we are most imperatively bound to consider the question of economy, not as with reference merely to the least possible cost of keeping so much live stock, but with reference to the probable result upon the character, tastes, inclinations and habits of young men.

The useful, influential and successful followers of the industrial callings lodge neither in barns, barracks nor monasteries. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred they lodge with a family which occupies a detached house with a domestic territory of its own, in which each of the inmates of the house has his own special interest and enjoyment, while he also shares with all the others in certain common means of comfort.

It is true that a close similarity in all respects to the ordinary conditions of family life cannot be expected to be secured to the students in the arrangements for their board and lodging. There are no necessities to be provided for similar to many which control the furniture and the method of housekeeping appropriate to the home of a family. In respect to internal arrangements therefore, the necessity for something different must be acknowledged, and must be met as a problem by itself. But in all other respects the arrangements for board and lodging should, it appears to me, approximate as nearly as practicable to those which would be considered models of healthy, cheerful, convenient family homes.

With regard to the internal arrangements, on the other hand, it must be considered that to a certain extent, the government and discipline of the college is required to be of a military character. Of course there must be a military organization. It will probably be found best to form companies of about forty. It will be absolutely necessary, from considerations of economy, that the officers of these companies should be students themselves. It follows that within certain limits the students must be a self-governed body. In all the military schools of which I have knowledge this is the case. In one which I have recently visited, to which students come from all parts of the country and from abroad (the greater part of whom are younger, of less orderly habits, [173] and less advanced in education than yours will unquestionably be), I found that the direct government of the students in their lodgings, and generally in respect to all that which does not come within the care of teachers of our common schools, was entirely in the hands of officers chosen from among themselves, and that the efficiency of these officers, and the loyalty of the students in respecting their authority, was all that could be desired.

If the minimum number of persons to be accommodated in each lodging-house be fixed at twenty, this will allow one commissioned officer, and one full platoon of rank and file to be quartered in each.

The general character of the houses might in that case be similar to that of the cottages commonly built for officers’ quarters in the cantonments of our western military stations. The two cottages of one company might be placed near each other, the gable ends toward the road. In the rear of the ground between them might stand a house with its gables at right angles to these, containing the company kitchen and mess-room, commissary store-room and office, a sick-room and a study-room. To show the advantages of such an arrangement I must discuss still further the question of a plan of adminstration adapted to meet the end designed to be secured by the national endowment.

It is very doubtful if real family government, parental administration or domestic order is possible in any large boarding-school or College, and, if not, it is certain that any system of management which assumes to be of that character must be felt to be false, and held in contempt, concealed or avowed, by those who are expected to be subordinate to it. It must consequently breed bad manners and immorality. The students of the Agricultural College will be generally of that intermediate age between childhood and manhood when, in a healthy natural development of the character, there is the strongest impulse to independent self-control and self-guidance, and consequently the strongest inclination to question the right and propriety of all merely personal authority. For the same reason however that pupils at this age are strongly indisposed to yield a filial subordination to instructors who have no claim upon their filial gratitude and affection, they are most disposed to respect any degree of authority which is systematically measured by the responsibility of those exercising it, because such authority implies entire respect for the personal responsibilities of those subject to it. Now this is the ruling principle of military authority. In the largest and most powerful military system of modern times: if an officer neglects to return the salute of a private, the private can compel him to be brought before a court martial, and to suffer punishment for his want of respect to the rights of a subordinate. We have lately seen the efficiency of this system of discipline. In a three months’ campaign, it has conquered an empire, and to-day it holds every power in Europe at defiance.

It is clearly the intention of the act of congress to secure as an incidental advantage of the national system of Industrial Colleges, the preparation [174] of a certain number of young men in each state for acting as officers and instructors of volunteer forces, and thus to save the nation from ever again being so completely unprepared for the duty of self-defence as it was found to be at the outbreak of the rebellion.

A careful study of the subject, which I made as an official duty during the war, led me to the conclusion that the element of their theoretical responsibility in which regimental and company officers at its commencement most failed; in which they most needed instruction; in which they acquired instruction by experience with the most difficulty; and in which their ignorance caused the most misery, the greatest waste of the national resources and the most melancholy loss of life, was just this of boarding and lodging. I remember once being informed that a Maine regiment had been without food for twenty-four hours, simply because the officers were ignorant of the routine to be pursued in procuring it. I reported the fact at the head quarters of the department, where it was received with apparent satisfaction, and I was told that nothing but starvation would teach the volunteer officers their duty in this respect. That many men died in this and every other volunteer regiment on account of the imperfect provision for maintaining them in health and vigor which was at that time universal, there can be no doubt.

I would respectfully suggest, therefore, that the arrangements for providing food for your students should be as nearly as practicable similar in character to those of the army. There should be a superintending commissary of the institution, who would of course not be a student; but the students should each in turn be required to perform the duties of an acting assistant commissary for their respective companies. The forms required by the army regulations for obtaining supplies for troops in barracks should be used, and no student should be graduated with honor who could not construct and use a camp oven and a camp kitchen, or who was not prepared to undertake himself and to instruct others in all the duties of a regimental commissary officer.

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This plan could, it strikes me, be accommodated to the suggestions of Mr. Barnes in regard to the self-support of the students better than any other. By establishing the company fund system, an esprit du corps would almost certainly be developed which would supply the best possible security for honesty and economy. As, therefore, each company, upon this plan, would have its own commissary officer, I suggest that each should have its own commissary store-room and office, its own kitchen and its own mess-room.

Accepting the general scheme of administration thus outlined, the economical minimum of accommodation for lodging and boarding may be approximately estimated as follows:

Three (3) cottages (one story and a half,) each 56 × 26 feet, including verandah and storm-house, for each forty students; that is to say, twelve such cottages to be built during the first four years after the first class is organized.

As I have before stated, there is nothing in the military arrangement of the boarding and lodging-houses proposed which would be inconsistent with a perfectly domestic character in their architecture and all their exterior arrangements. It is desirable to give the latter this character as much as possible, and especially does this apply to the laying out of the grounds about them. I can do no better than repeat the advice I have already given to the Trustees of the Massachusetts Agricultural College in this regard:

“Each house should have a little lawn between it and the road, with a few additions of a domestic character, such as arbors, trellises, summer-houses, dove-cotes, martin-boxes, bowling or croquet greens, terraces, hedges, ice-houses, &c.; constructions which would supply in every case real additions to the comfort and health of the proposed inmates, and at the same time aid their education in the art of making a home cheerful and attractive. There should be pots of window plants, a Wardian case or two, cages of singing birds, and some not expensive musical instruments in each house; a bed of hardy ferns and delicate evergreens on the north side, and a few tender shrubs on the lawn, which would require to be laid down or strawed up for the winter. The care of these things—the mowing of the lawn—the trimming of the hedges—the rolling and sweeping of the gravel—the training of the vines on the trellises—and even the occasional painting, white-washing and glazing of the houses, should be a part of the duty and of the education of the students.”

A squad from each platoon would of course be detailed at a certain hour each day for police duty. After putting their respective houses in order in all respects, those so detailed should be allowed a certain time for taking care of their lawn, their gravel walks, and all the ground and fittings in connection with their quarters and mess-room. An honorable rivalry between companies would doubtless secure great care on the part of each to give the best possible appearance to the ground before its quarters, open to constant [176] observation, as it would be, by the public, passing along the road, and thus a most valuable system of self-education would be established.

Among all the means of education which can be obtained for this peculiar establishment—we must constantly bear in mind, and I shall therefore be excused for repeating once more that—means for establishing certain tastes and habits are of more importance than any other, because if the institution fails in this respect, it fails in the primary object for which it is founded, the Board of Trustees fail to meet their responsibility to the State, and the State fails to meet the obligations which it assumed to the nation in accepting the land grant.

The two most important classes of means with reference to this end must be, in my judgment, the library and the gardens; one with reference to indoor recreations, the other with reference to out of door recreations. The records of your Board of Agriculture show that timely consideration has been given to the first. The second, I submit, is of no less importance. We hear regrets expressed every day that our best young men are deserting the country and rushing to the cities. In many rural towns of New England it is said that there are no middle-aged people left of those farmers’ families which twenty or thirty years ago were notable for their thrift, cultivation and intelligence. So far as this is true, the reason of it, in my judgment, will be found not less in the character of the men than in that of the women. If a young woman who has had good educational advantages marries a farmer, let him be ever so thrifty and so successful in his pursuit, she is apt to find but little that is gratifying to her tastes in the circumstances of her residence, or the habits of her husband. Out of doors he is given up to his interests in his crops and stock; indoors he cares more for food and rest and speculations upon the prospects of his crops and the markets, than for anything with which a woman has a womanly sympathy. Consequently his wife is often lonely; there is but little relief to the drudgery of her housekeeping duties; during the working days she seldom goes out of the house, because there is nothing to draw her out, and she finds her life monotonous and dull beyond endurance. She pines for the variety of interest, the stir and society of town life. Against this misfortune there is but one precaution that you can take. It is to establish tastes in your students with which young women of refined impulses can cordially sympathize, and to offer them facilities for training themselves in ways of gratifying these tastes, which young women can admire, encourage, contribute to and be grateful for.

For these, among other reasons, a domestic character in the exterior of the habitations of the students, and surroundings to these habitations which shall be of a model character with reference to the ground which a farmer or mechanic may, without excessive trouble, keep in order for the gratification of his family about his house, constitute desiderata in your general plan really of more importance than any other which it comes within my province to consider. To provide for them, the general village-like arrangement [177] which I have proposed of all the buildings to be erected either within a few years or in the distant future is almost essential, and this village-like arrangement cannot be appropriately realized unless all your buildings should correspond in size and general style exteriorly with those which would appropriately meet the ordinary requirements of a rural community. If this view is adopted, all the buildings which you erect will, in important respects, themselves form models and veritable means of practical instruction to your students, as well as serve each its more obvious special purposes.

The minimum of recommendation for a completely organized College upon the plan which I shall therefore recommend for your adoption, providing for four classes of forty students each, with a moderate margin for contingent requirements in the halls, of a more public character, may be thus roughly estimated:

I.

A fire-proof building, 42 × 24, with rooms as follows:

1st story.—(a) Library.

(b) Librarian’s room, lobby and staircase.

2d story.—(a) Reading room, drawing and writing rooms.

(b) Packing room and staircase.

II.

A fire-proof building, 42 × 40 feet:

1st story.—(a) Chemical Laboratory and Lecture room.

(b) Professor’s private room, Janitor’s room, wash room, packing room and closets.

2d story.—(a) Museum.

(b) Special cabinets and offices.

III.

One two-story building, 50 × 24 feet, containing On each story—Two Lecture rooms, entrance hall, staircase, and two private rooms for the use of the Professors.

IV.

A building, 56 × 36, containing in a half-basement story, an armory, drill-room, closets and staircase.

Above this—a Hall for chapel and general meetings of the College, room for faculty meetings, office and staircase.

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V.

Two cottage residences for members of the Faculty, each two stories, 40 × 32.

VI.

Eight cottages, each 56 × 26, for the students to live in, as before described.

VII.

Four cottages, each 56 × 26, for mess rooms, &c., as before described.

VIII.

Shops, barns, stables, granaries and out-houses according to requirements, with regard to which data are yet wanting.

The walls and partitions of the first four buildings are proposed to be so arranged that whenever necessary they may be lengthened, and the halls to be used by the students enlarged one half. Should additional room afterwards be found wanting for the scientific collections and the Library, it will probably be found best to supply it in the form of additional buildings, especially designed for particular purposes. For instance, a building may eventually be found desirable to contain a special library and collections with reference to navigation, ship-building and ship-timber. This might contain, besides books on naval construction, navigation and seamanship, drawings and models of all classes of vessels; a collection of specimens of ship-timber, cordage and canvas from all parts of the world; drawings and models of marine engines, paddles and screws; of cranes, derricks, dry docks, jury rudders, naval camels and rafts; illustrations of the agencies destructive of ship-timber, and the means of guarding against, and counteracting them; of whaling gear; of apparatus for laying submarine telegraphs; of communicating with wrecked vessels, and for life-saving, etc. If, again, through the liberality of individuals or the public, the general botanical collection should become very large and valuable, as is not at all unlikely, considering the number of the citizens of Maine whose calling carries them all over the world, and the ease with which they could bring home interesting illustrations, especially of economic botany, it would no doubt be best to provide a special Botanical museum and Library building.

The extent to which I have assumed that the military element in the administration of the institution should affect the character of the plan may possibly be thought at first to be of questionable advantage. It should be remembered, however, that I have referred to but a few conditions of the military system as embodied in our national army regulations, and that these [179] regulations are in fact the result of the most varied experience, and of the most careful study of thousands of men of the greatest genius and practical ability among all civilized nations for hundreds of years; that our own Washington and our own Grant have contributed to them, and that each has added all he could to perfect their adaptation to their purpose. It should also be considered that the intention of the army regulations is simply to secure the greatest practicable economy, efficiency and power in the leadership, the maintenance and the security for health and strength of bodies of men; and this not merely with reference to large bodies of men on active campaign duty, but also of companies and battalions of men, living in garrison, and in times of peace. There was a great prejudice and outcry against this system in its application to volunteers six years ago, but it was maintained, and many of those who were loudest in their objections to it became convinced, through the hardest experience, that it was so simple, just, economical and efficient in all respects that no essential change in it could be confidently proposed.