382 ~ [Senate 



to which the earnest and enlightened efforts of the present times are 

 tending, may and should be laid in those elementary institutions of 

 learning where nineteen-twentieths of the youth of our State are an- 

 nually instructed. Nor is it necessary to the accomplishment of this 

 object, that a separate department of education, devoted to this spe- 

 cific purpose, should be organized, or that any serious innovation 

 should be made in the ordinary process of elementary instruction. 



I was very much struck with the force of Dr. Beck's observation, 

 in a portion of his communication to the committee above referred to, 

 deprecating the too early use of purely scientific works on the con- 

 stitution of the air, of water, and of the various elementary sub- 

 stances which enter into the formation and development of soils, — 

 to the exclusion of primary objects of early study. It may be true, 

 likewise, as he observes, that the researches of philosophers and sci- 

 entific men in the prosecution of those interesting and important to- 

 pics which " the present brilliant era in agricultural chemistry" has 

 opened up, may overthrow or very materially modify principles and 

 doctrines now generally received as fundamental. But while the 

 probability or even possibility, that new and more enlightened views 

 may supersede those which now prevail in this branch of scientific 

 investigation, should teach us caution, and prevent us from hastily 

 rushing to conclusions, without a sufficienlly extensive induction, it 

 will scarcely be contended that we should, on this account, altogether 

 cease our efforts in this direction. Mr. Barnard, the able and ac- 

 complished Secretary of the Board of Education in Connecticut, and 

 more recently the Agent of Public Instruction in Rhode Island, 

 whose opinions on any subject immediately or remotely connected 

 with education, are entitled to the highest confidence and regard, 

 unites with Dr. Beck in deprecating the introduction either of agri- 

 culture or horticulture, as a new and distinct branch in our common 

 schools^s at present organized. The great experience, and the known 

 practical abilities of these distinguished educators, confer additional 

 weight to their opinions in this respect ; and I do not propose to con- 

 trovert the soundness of the conclusions to which they have arrived. 

 The object which the friends of agricultural improvement have in 

 view, in incorporating a knowledge of the fundamental principles of 

 that science, with the gradual development of the mental faculties, 

 may, I apprehend, be attained without innovation on the course of 

 studies now generally marked out for our common schools. Natural 

 philosophy and natural history, including in their more advanced 

 stages the elementary principles of chemistry, geology, mineralogy, 

 botany, zoology, and entomology, are branches coming within the ap- 

 propriate pale of primary instruction — adapted to the comprehension 

 and congenial to the taste of the young learner — of undoubted impor- 

 tance to an accurate and useful knowledge of the external world, and 

 of the various topics subsequently to be mastered in the course of a 

 thorough education. 



Should not the teacher be able, in communicating the principles 

 and facts connected with these interesting departments of general sci- 

 ence, to point out their practical application to the every day pursuits 



