A CHAPTER ON AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. 



251 



"It should be an experimental farm, 

 where all the new theories could be tested, 

 in order to find out what is of real value, 1 ' 

 says a sixth. 



And thus, there is no end to the variety 

 of projects for an agricultural school, — each 

 man building on a different platform. 



Yet there must be some real and solid 

 foundation on which to erect the edifice 

 of a great educational institution for farm- 

 ers. And we imagine these supposed dif- 

 ferences of opinion may all be reconciled, 

 if we examine a little the sources from 

 which they originate. 



Agriculture is both a science and an art. 

 It may be studied in the closet, the labora- 

 tory, the lecture room ; so that a man may 

 have a perfect knowledge of it in his head, 

 and yet not know how to perform well a 

 single one of its labors in the field ; or it 

 may be gained by rote in the fields, by one 

 who cannot give you the reason for the 

 operation of a single law of nature which 

 it involves. The first is mere theory — the 

 second, mere practice. 



It is easy to see, that he who is only a 

 theorist is no more likely to raise good 

 crops profitably, than a theoretical swimmer 

 is to cross the Hellespont like Leander; 

 and that the mere practical farmer is as 

 little likely to improve on what he has 

 learned by imitation, as his horse is to in- 

 vent a new mode of locomotion. 



The difference of opinion, regarding the 

 nature or the province of an agricultural 

 school, seems mainly to grow out of the 

 different sides from which the matter is 

 viewed — whether the advocate favors sci- 

 ence or practice most, — forgetting that the 

 well educated agriculturist should combine 

 in himself both the science and the art 

 which he professes. 



The difference between knowledge and 

 wisdom is nowhere better illustrated than 



in a mixed study, like agriculture. Know- 

 ledge may be either theoretical or practical ; 

 but wisdom is "knowledge 'put in action'' 1 

 What the agricultural school, which this 

 age and country now demands, must do to 

 satisfy us, is to teach — not alone the know- 

 ledge of the books — not alone the practice 

 of the fields, but that agricultural wisdom 

 which involves both, and which can never 

 be attained without a large development of 

 the powers of the pupil in both directions. 

 His head and hands must work together. 

 He must try all things that promise well, 

 and know the reason of his failure as well 

 as his success. To this end, he must not 

 be in the hands of quack chemists and 

 quack physiologists in the lecture halls, or 

 those of chimerical farmers or dull team- 

 sters in the fields. Hence, the state must 

 insist upon having, for teachers, only the 

 ablest men; men who will teach wisely, 

 whether it be chemistry or ploughing, — 

 teach it in the best and most thorough 

 manner, so that it may become wisdom for 

 the pupil. Such men are always success- 

 ful in their own sphere and calling, and 

 can no more be had for the asking than 

 one can have the sun and stars. They 

 must be sought for and carried off by 

 violence, and made to understand that 

 the state has a noble work for them, 

 which she means to have rightly and well 

 done. 



To. achieve this, an agricultural school 

 must be planned, neither with a lavish nor 

 a niggardly spirit. As agriculture is espe- 

 cially an industrial art, the manual labor 

 practice of that art should be an inevitable 

 part of the education and discipline of the 

 pupils. But to base the operation of the 

 school upon the plan of immediate profit, 

 in all its branches, solely, would, we con- 

 ceive, cut off in a great degree the largest 

 source of profit to the country at large. 



