AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 35 



without it, however strong may be our innate attachment to 

 the soil, and however correct our youthful observation. The 

 establishment of agricultural schools is a part of our duty as 

 heirs of an untrammeled ownership of the soil. When France 

 altered the tenure of land and distributed her territory among 

 her citizens, after the great revolution, one of the first acts of 

 her government was to educate the people into intelligent 

 farmers. For this purpose she instituted agricultural societies, 

 veterinary schools and model farms, where young men might 

 be instructed in the theory and practice of agriculture by 

 highly qualified teachers, and have an opportunity of witness- 

 ing the daily operations of the farm. Under the influence of 

 these institutions the agriculture of France has been brought 

 to a high degree of' perfection. What government has done 

 there, the people may do here. We want the rudiments of 

 agriculture taught in our schools — mathematics as applied to 

 measuring our land — tables of the solid contents of weight and 

 measure — rules for the application of manures — modes and 

 distances for sowing and planting — the early history of the 

 great art. Would not this be as useful as algebra, or a smatter- 

 ing of metaphysics ? We want a larger number of competent 

 editors for our agricultural journals — men who would write of 

 agriculture as an old divine did of theology. We want well 

 educated and competent judges and committees for our agri- 

 cultural societies — critics who would be able to estimate the 

 true value of any mode of cultivation, the true quality and 

 importance of a crop, the effect of successions of crops upon 

 the soil, the economy and system of good farming, and who 

 could subject the various animals submitted to their examina- 

 tion, to a careful, intelligent, systematic test of their adaptation 

 to the farms on which they are kept, and to the purposes for 

 which they are fed. We want agricultural colleges. We want 

 model farms — not farms cultivated by " little wanton boys," 

 as a punishment for unruly conduct, and where no definite and 

 systematic mode of cultivation can possibly be adopted — but 

 farms where young men may learn the theory and practice of 

 cultivating the earth under the instruction of well qualified 

 teachers, and from whence they may return to their paternal 

 acres, fitted to make the agriculture of New England what it 

 should be, and what it must be. 



