AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 417 



experience the results of ages of experimenting, the improve- 

 ments that successive generations have made upon the rude 

 attempts of the savage ? 



Let the farmer consider that his first duty is self-culture. If 

 his early education was imperfect, there is so much more need 

 of increased activity in manhood. Perhaps there is no calling 

 in which appropriate knowedge is so sure of contributing to 

 immediate success as agriculture. Hitherto none has suffered 

 more from the lack of it. 



And here I am reminded that most of the education our 

 young farmers receive is merely elementary and preparatory, 

 and that no school of agricultural science yet furnishes the 

 necessary specific instruction. Shall this deficiency remain? 

 Will not our wealthy men, whose munificence is proverbial, 

 endow a school in which young men may be taught the theory 

 and the practice of farming, in connection with a farm on 

 which experiments shall be conducted with all the skill and 

 discrimination which present knowledge and experience can 

 suggest? With such a school we might hope that some 

 certain principles would be established as guides to practice 

 instead of our ever-varying, unreliable rules. A series of 

 experiments upon manures and soils, on a large scale, con- 

 ducted with rigid accuracy for a dozen or a score of years, 

 might reasonably be expected to furnish a clue to practices 

 that would insure success. Is there any other industrial pur- 

 suit that better deserves the encouragement implied in such an 

 enterprise ? 



Or, if we cannot establish a public school, can we not induce 

 some intelligent farmers to open private schools for students in 

 agriculture ? Farm schools are common in Great Britain, and 

 are not only well attended, but at some of them crowds of ap- 

 plicants wait for- admission. The scholars study and work, 

 learn theory and practice, and in a few years become capable of 

 superintending a large farm. They obtain so much information 

 and such practical skill that they have only to ask for employ- 

 ment in order to obtain it. I can scarcely imagine a better 

 method of improving our agriculture or of interesting our young 

 men in so noble and manly a calling. 



But where are the pupils ? Are not our young men leaving 



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