184 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



scientific agriculture as a study. And they hardly need add, 

 that, in their opmion, these schools can never, by any possibil- 

 ity, meet the most j^rcssing necessities of the practical agricul- 

 turist, in the way of l<!.rnishing agricultural knowledge. And 

 more than this : they decra the simple truth to be, that, to be- 

 gin with our common school? as the first agency for the promo- 

 tion of agricultural improvement, is to begin at the wrong end — 

 to build without a foundation — to undertake to maintain a 

 stream without a fountain — to attempt to<<)i.cc a most diminutive 

 stream of agricultural knowledge over the heads or under the 

 feet of the present on the future, and tha*- too without any 

 fountain to sustain it — to labor to operate o. the future, not 

 merely to the neglect of the most pressing necc-s^ities of the 

 present, but of the means of sustaining that operation. 



2. — Academies. 



Some of the objections to the common schools, as an agency 

 to meet the present wants of agriculture, do not lie against 

 well conducted academies. Undoubtedly some good service 

 to the cause of agricultural science, might be secured through 

 their agency, though the difficulty in regard to competent teach- 

 ers exists here as well as in the commo\i schools ; but this dif- 

 ficulty is much more easily overcome here, from the more mature 

 :age and extended mental training of the teachers. That there 

 is a possibility of academies meeting the public wants in this 

 regard, in time, is admitted ; but here comes in the question of 

 economy, which seems to us a most fatal ol)jection. 



In this State, there are about sixty academies in active ope- 

 ration. Suppose we adopt this agency, -it would involve the 

 ■outlay for the construction and furnishing sixty laboratories, 

 laeside the liberal endowment of each of them, to enable them 

 to do the work demanded, unembarrassed, and the obtaining of 

 sixty teachers, fully qualified for their work, when there are 

 not five such to be found in the State. Now suppose we can 

 get over all these difficulties — get the money and the teachers — 

 then the question arises, are these sixty laboratories and schools 

 needed to meet the wants of the farmers now or hereafter ? 

 It seems to us they would be entirely unnecessary. One or two 

 laboratories and schools in connection, are abundantly sufficient 



