46 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of other nations. It ought now to give all its children and youth 

 an opportunity to acquire a knowledge of the principles of prac- 

 tical agriculture. In all our district schools, besides the common 

 branches now required to be taught by statute, such as reading, 

 writing, spelling, arithmetic, grammar and geography, easy pri- 

 mary lessons in chemistry should be given on the properties of 

 elementary substances, their mutual combinations, the modes of 

 separating them, with the application of such knowledge to the 

 explanation of natural phenomena and to useful purposes in the 

 arts of life. Also a knowledge should be imparted of the first 

 principles of natural philosophy or of the laws of motion and me- 

 chanical forces ; of botany, or the structure and growth of plants-; 

 of physiology, or the^requirements of plants and animals; of geol- 

 ogy, or the origin and nature of soils. 



If suitable elementary treatises on these subjects cannot be ob- 

 tained, the teacher might talk familiarly about them fifteen or 

 twent}'^ minutes daily, and illustrate the first principles by a few 

 simple experiments, and thus afford agreeable relaxation, awaken 

 an interest and develop a taste for these studies. 



In all our _ High schools, these sciences should be more thor- 

 oughly taught, more amply illustrated ; their relations to the useful 

 arts more lully explained, and more time devoted to their investi- 

 gation. 



But most of all, there is an imperative necessity that the Legisla- 

 ture should now found an Agricultural College, with an experimen- 

 tal farm and accomplished instructors to teach all its pupils in the 

 lecCure room, in the laboratory, and in the field, all the innumerable 

 applications of science to Agriculture and the Arts ; to accustom 

 them to the best methods of cultivation, and the skilful use of the 

 best farm implements ; to acquaint them with the best farm buildings 

 and the different breeds of animals ; to enjoin upon them system, 

 and habits of careful observation and reflection ; in fine, to make 

 them compehend all the principles, the whole science of husbandry 

 with all its practical details, and the reasons for them, and at the 

 same time to give them a fondness for this noble occupation. 



Thus the brain and the hand, the heart and the muscle would all 

 unite in its prosecution and would conduct its operations with 

 success and profit. Intelligence would tlicn be wedded to labor ; 

 the first minds of the age would engage in agriculture, instead of 

 rushing into the professions, when it was apparent that capital and 



