10 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



From an Address before the Middlesex Society. 



BY KUFUS P. STEBBINS. 



The appropriate and important question to be asked and 

 answered to-day is most obviously this : — How can farmers and 

 mechanics evince and vindicate their right to be classed among 

 the honored and honorable of the earth ? How can young men 

 and young women be convinced that it is as respectable and far 

 more profitable and prosperous and delightful, to till the soil 

 and manage the dairy and furnish the wardrobe and the table, 

 than it is to sell merchandise and ply the needle, play the 

 exquisite and the belle ? The answer is swift and conclusive. 

 These occupations must be raised to the rank of arts by their 

 intelligent, scientific pursuit. The reasons of things must be 

 known, and then farming will be a delight, not a drudgery, an 

 honor, not a disgrace, both in its pursuit and result. How then 

 can this knowledge, essential to the highest success, to any 

 success in your calling, be obtained, hi our public schools. 



I know as the public schools of the country are usually 

 conducted, little or no attention is paid to practical science. 

 Children are taught to spell Ompompanoosuc, and name the 

 rivers in Ethiopia and Siberia, but they are not taught why a 

 silver spoon is tarnished by boiled eggs, or a knife by cutting 

 an apple. They are not taught why deep ploughing prevents 

 the severities of drought, or why guano is a good fertilizer on 

 some soils, or whence comes the carbon of the forest trees. 

 They are not taught the difference between boiled and roasted 

 meat, and why bread is heavy. Silver dollars are put into the 

 churn to bring the butter, and pork is killed at high tide or 

 full of the moon, to prevent shrinkage, because our schools 

 spend more time in teaching the extraction of cube roots, than 

 the extraction of butter from cream. The science of cooking, 



