SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION, ly-j 



brevity, only the leading objects of the colleges are mentioned ; but, 

 had he read even so accessible an exposition of law as Kent's " Com- 

 mentaries," he would have found that every act is to be construed by 

 its contents and not by its title. 



But the doctor was especially hilarious over the small number of 

 graduates from our agricultural colleges. 



Let us look at this. The number is at present very small, but I 

 presume that no thoughtful man expected that at so early a period 

 after their establishment the number would be very large, nor, indeed, 

 do I expect that for some years the number will greatly increase. In 

 a new country like ours, those professions which present the most 

 brilliant returns will be sougjht for first. Hence we find that, when a 

 farmer decides to educate his son, it is not generally with the idea of 

 making him a farmer. And, even when he does bring him up as a 

 farmer, he has great doubts as to the value of any instruction for that 

 purpose outside of the old farm routine. 



But while I allow freely that this is the case now, I can state quite 

 as confidently that this condition of things cannot continue for many 

 years. There are those now living among us who will stand among a 

 hundred millions of citizens within the boundaries of our Republic. 

 When that day comes — nay, long before — this present condition of 

 things must change. The present system of routine cultivation — this 

 present system of " skinning " lands and then running away to soils 

 more fruitful, in the intention of robbing and running away from them 

 in turn — cannot last. Men must get a subsistence on less and less 

 land; and they can only get it by bringing to bear upon it better 

 and better cultivation. How soon we shall come to the division of 

 property in the Scotch Lothian s or the Belgian Pays de Waes, with 

 their small farms exquisitely tilled, and supporting well a body of 

 thrifty men, I cannot say ; but the steady approximation to it is as 

 inevitable as fate. And at the same time that this goes on, the profes- 

 sions hitherto known as " learned " will be more and more thoroughly 

 filled. We see the beginnings of this now. Already is it becoming 

 less and less easy for the farmer's boy to be sure that the little dark 

 oftice in the great city block, swarming with lawyers, is, after all, so 

 much more promising than the open fields and the work of the farmer.. 



And now, what should this industrial education be? Many men, 

 hastily looking over the subject, have jumped to the conclusion that it 

 should consist in simply teaching the plain arts of husbandry and of 

 mechanics; that is, that the great object should be to train young 

 men simply or mainly to hoe or spade or plough in the fields, or to 

 make chairs or shoes, or hats or boats, in the shops. There could be 

 no more wretched perversion of the trust imposed by Congress. The 

 phraseology of the act of 1862 was chosen with great care, and, when 

 it speaks of "branches relating to agriculture and the mechanic arts," 

 it means just what it says. It meant to provide that all applicable 



VOL. V. — 12 



