THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



299 



chant. Nine times in ten, in fact, at such a " Semi- 

 nary" the routine of his studies are all directly refer- 

 rable to the latter. And thus armed, he returns home, 

 most probably to stay at home and learn his own busi- 

 ness as he may, having so far learned little or nothing 

 about it. We will not say as a rule that, non-apprenticed 

 to his own father, he picks up this essential knowledge 

 in rather a loose unsatisfactory sort of way. Too often, 

 however, he does. To a youth j ust verging on manhood, 

 parental control, if exercised as it might be, is not 

 always of the strongest. And thus our " Commercial 

 Academy Farmer" leai'ns mostly what he likes, and 

 leaves alone what he does not like. If he succeeds 

 against all these disadvantages, as we are happy to say 

 he frequently does, great the credit due to him. If he 

 fail, we may safely assume the system, or want of 

 system, has something to do with it. He has not been 

 brought up to, or has not been (jrounded, in his busi- 

 ness. And a farmer, in this age, we take it, should be 

 as duly prepared for his profession as if he were going 

 to the Bar, the Church, or the Counting-house. The 

 triumphs of self-educated men are but exceptional, as 

 few only are equal to such a trial. A real knowledge 

 of agriculture, to be sure, can be but slowly and gra- 

 dually imbibed ; though, with the various extraneous 

 aids and agents now called in, a boy can hardly begin 

 too soon to know something about the art he is to 

 practise. 



How, then, to educate the farmer ? In these days of 

 education for everybody, shall he still pass unnoticed ? 

 At this time, when he is called on to advance, 

 progress, and develop, shall he yet continue to pick 

 up his knowledge by the way- side, and in stony 

 places ? Shall he yet be suffered to remain 

 the one marked exception — the lucus a 7ion, who is to 

 have the teaching of a tradesman because ho is going 

 to be a farmer, or in lack of that, is to have no teaching 

 whatever? Mr. T. Dyke Acland saysno. And Mr. 

 Acland, so prominently associated with the success of the 

 Bath and West of England Society, has made that body 

 the means for supplying a want so long felt. As we inti- 

 mated in our report of the last meetingat Newton, mainly 

 through the agency of the West of England's Journal, 

 the subject of Middle Class Education has come to be 

 something more than discussed. Measures are already 

 being propounded for placing this upon a better footing. 

 True, however, to that interest to whose welfare his 

 labours have been so ably and especially directed, 

 Mr. Acland has devoted a pamphlet to, so 

 far at any rate, the least considered of these 

 important ranks in society: — "The Education 

 of the Farmer viewed in connection with that of 

 the Middle Classes in General : its objects, principles, 

 and cost." It is the first recommendation of this work, 

 that nothing could be written in a calmer, more prac- 

 tical, or more thoroughly judicious manner. Mr. 

 Acland begins by admitting that, to a certain 

 extent, the education of the farmer's sons must be that 

 of other boys. The question is, how far must we dis- 

 tinguish it from others, and identify it witli his pur- 

 suits in after-life ? Let us reflect what the farmer in 



embryo might learn, and compare it with what he does : 

 — " If wc consider on what powers of nature human 

 food depends, it is surprising how many departments of 

 knowledge may contribute something to the result. 

 How plants grow — and how animals feed — why 

 some thrive and others are stunted — are questions as 

 yet imperfectly answered : but they are the subject- 

 matter of the science of Physiology ; a science, the 

 comprehension of which implies an accurate knowledge 

 of Chemistry and of the general principles of Natural 

 Philosophy. The constitution of the soil, the varieties 

 of strata, are taught by Mineralogy and Geology. 

 Draining, in its present advanced state, depends on the 

 laws of Hydrostatics. The economy of farm-labour 

 requires the skilful application of the laws of Mechanics, 

 These are all matters of fact, plain, broad, and palpa- 

 ble, entering into the simplest arrangements of a well- 

 conducted farm. But if wo go on to more delicate 

 subjects, how much is the produce of the farm aiFected 

 by tbe principles of Heat and Light, perhaps of 

 Electricity, by the complicated agencies of climate in- 

 cluded in the province of Meteorology ! To the subjects 

 already named must be added the diseases of vegetables 

 and animals, and the intricate questions involved in 

 the art of high -breeding. In addition to what belongs 

 to agriculture as a food-producing art, the farmer re- 

 quires knowledge of the principles which affect the 

 rates of wages, profits, rents — principles taught by 

 Political Economy, but having a most important bear- 

 ing on the question, ' Will it pay V " 



Admirably as all this is put, perhaps the very best 

 point in it is the deduction at which our author arrives. 

 Instead of running away with his subject, and furnish- 

 ing his young farmer complete as a natural philoso- 

 pher, apolitical economist, a chemist, a geologist, and 

 an astronomer, he comes at once to this sound decision : 

 "The bare enumeration of these subjects is conclusive. 

 The boy's studies must have some limit." What this 

 limit is we shall leave our readers to gather for them- 

 selves. It would be impossible for US' to do justice to 

 its consideration hei-e. More than this, we are really 

 anxious that farmers should read the pamphlet. It 

 will set them, as it has us, a-thinking— and, as we be- 

 lieve, to a good purpose. It is offered them, moreover, 

 by a man they can trust. By one who, as he said in that 

 telling little speech at Salisbury wishes to hear the 

 farmers speak for themselves, and speaks himself as 

 directly to them. 



EFFECTS OP CLOVER-HAY ON ANIMALS.— Some 

 late writers have taken the position that clover-hay produces 

 a most iujurious effect on domestic animals, particularly 

 horses; and that to this cause the great increase of diseased 

 horses is to be attributed. We lately heard a farmer affirm 

 that he believed the introduction of clover-hay into genera! 

 cultivation the greatest curse yet inflicted on the country, and 

 assigned, as a reason for this singu'ar opinion, its effects ou 

 auiraals when used as a fodder. Late English writers have 

 attributed to this kind of hay tbe prevalence of hove in 

 horses, and the great increase of other diseases that affect tbe 



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