422 Transactions of the 



• 



agricultural, mechanical and horticultural journals removed, all statis- 

 tical information withheld, and the transmission of the most valuable 

 knowledge this age is gaining left to tradition, you avi prepared to 

 estimate what science has done and is doing for us. Still more, my 

 practical friend. Go back to the implements which your grandfather, 

 who was no fool, sir, hoed and harvested and thrashed with; buy a 

 little wheel, and a reel, and loom, and dye tub for your wife (if you are 

 so fortunate as to have one), and tell me what you think of the service 

 which inventors of machinery, and improvers of varieties of plants, and 

 discoverers sent out *by our institutions to find whatever can be im- 

 pressed into man's service, and newspaper men, are worth to the world. 

 And when I meet a mechanic who points to successful men who have 

 made lucky hits without much education, and who feels inclined to 

 follow his calling in a mindless, empirical way — realizing none of its 

 connections with great material and social laws, I say, "My friend, all 

 your interests are at the niercy of men who have built up vast fortunes; 

 secured to themselves vast monopolies; made peace and war in spite of 

 you; burdened } T ou with taxation; because your craft has been on\y 

 handicraft. A wise foresight or self-preservation will drive you to edu- 

 cation, if all higher motives fail." 



It is true that there has heen a great gulf between the abstract and 

 practical sides of industrial pursuits (and of a good many other things 

 also); but this is being bridged over, and I propose to show you how 

 extensively in those countries where they are most successful and most 

 honored. You are aware that in Prussia the Government .requires that 

 every child shall be educated; assuming that it is the right and duty of 

 the State to protect itself from ignorance, the most fruitful source of 

 crime, as well as crime itself. She enjoys the enviable reputation of 

 being first among nations in this respect. All Germany, Austria, and 

 of late Eussia, are imitating her example, and act on the principle that 

 the farmer and mechanic must have as thorough an education as the 

 lawyer, doctor, or clergyman. To insure tills, the}* have established 

 special schools, with every appliance of land, buildings, and apparatus; 

 taking students from the higher classes of the public schools or other- 

 wise, and training them for their pursuits as superintendents, overseers, 

 or laborers. A description of one which has served for a model to the 

 rest of Europe will suffice for all. 



a moBel school. 



The B»yal Band and Forest Academy of "Wurtemburg is situated at 

 Hohenheim, a few miles from Stuttgart. You will find there a large 

 farm adjoining a Government forest of five thousand acres (these prac- 

 tical Germans know the importance of taking care of and cultivating 

 trees); about twenty acres, divided into one hundred plats, are used for 

 experimental purposes, where all questions based uj>on soils and their 

 preparation, methods of culture of new plants, are tested; a botanical 

 garden, covering several acres, exhibiting all the varieties of plants 

 which can be grown in that climate; there is a beet sugar factory, a 

 breweiy, a distillery, a starch factory, a vinegar factory, a malting and 

 fruit growing establishment, a silkworm establishment, and machine 

 shops where agricultural implements are made and mended; this depart- 

 ment being expected to furnish the rest of Germany with the best 

 models. All the studies are pursued in connection with actual practice 

 in the field and forest, and embrace the general principles of agriculture, 



