64 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW-YORK 



For the acquisition of this practical instruction, some labor 

 from the student upon the farm will be required at stated times 

 in the pleasant part of the year. It is believed that this instruc- 

 tion can be given and this labor performed in the field without 

 prejudicial interference with the studies in the college. It will 

 be, to some extent, a substitute for the gymnastic and other 

 exercises found necessary in other institutions for the promotion 

 of health and of a proper physical development. 



It is believed, that to use the field as a laboratory to illustrate 

 the principles of these sciences, in connection with their study in 

 the college, will give them increased interest and attraction, and 

 will have a strong tendency to educate the farmer's son back to 

 the farm instead of educating him away from it. 



The estimation in wdiich Agricultural Schools are held in 

 Europe should be an instructive lesson to ns. The rapid improve- 

 ments now making there, in their agriculture, is attributable 

 largely to the scientific and practical instruction obtained at their 

 Agricultural Schools. The advantages arising from them have 

 been so palpable, that they have been increased with most aston- 

 ishing rapidity. 



Mr. Coleman finished his report upon the State of Agriculture 

 in Europe, in 1844, and he describes nine agricultural schools. 

 But a few others existed on the continent, in countries which he 

 did not visit. From a recent investigation, it is found there are 

 now 352 there, most of which have been established since 1844 

 some by government patronage alone, some from individual enter- 

 prise, and some from the two united. 



Their governments establish them to increase the productions 

 from their lands, that a larger population can be sustained, and 

 that population be in a better condition to sustain their public 

 burthens. The landholders do it as the most effectual means of 

 increasing their yield, that they may increase their rents. It is 

 found, as a matter of finance, that no investment pays better. To 

 them it is like the improved farm implement, the work is better 

 done and at less expense. How much stronger the inducement to 

 establish them here, wdiere the people are the government, and 

 -where they own the soil. Where the individual is to be enriched, 

 the State is to be enriched, and the citizen elevated in his moral, 

 his social and intellectual standard. 



