252 



NOTES ON THE EVERGREEN IVY. 



The pupils would leave the school either 

 as practical farmers after a single model, 

 or they would leave it with their heads full 

 of unsatisfied longings after theories which 

 they had not been permitted to work out. 

 They would be destitute of that vrisdom 

 which comes only from knowledge and ex- 

 perience combined, and would go home 

 only to fail in applying a practice suited to 

 a different soil from their own, or to indulge 

 (at large personal loss,) theories which 

 might have been forever settled in company 

 with an hundred others, at the smallest pos- 

 sible cost to the state. 



We rejoice to see the awakened zeal of 

 the farmers of the state of New- York, in 

 this subject of agricultural education. We 

 rejoice to find a large majority of our legis- 

 lature warmly seconding and supporting 

 their wishes ; and most of all, we rejoice to 

 see a governor who unceasingly urges upon 

 our law-makers the value and necessity of 

 a great agricultural school. One of our 

 contemporaries — the editor of the Working 

 Farmer — has aptly remarked that Wash- 

 ington was our only great statesman who 

 had " the moral courage to advocate the 

 rights of farmers. Statesmen mistake the 

 more apparent praise of other classes for 

 the praise of the majority." If, however, 

 the views of Hamilton Fish, regarding this 

 subject, are carried out by the legislature 

 of this state, the people will owe him a great 

 debt of gratitude, for urging the formation 



of an educational institution, which will, 

 both directly and indirectly, do more to 

 elevate the character of the great industrial 

 class of the nation, and develop the agri- 

 cultural wealth of the country at large, 

 than any step which has been taken since 

 the foundation of the republic. 



An agricultural college, for the complete 

 education of farmers, where the vrisest 

 general economy of farmings involving all 

 its main scientific and practical details, 

 successfully established in the state of 

 New- York, will be the model and type of 

 a similar institution in every state in the 

 Union. Its influence will be speedily felt 

 in all parts of the country ; and it is there- 

 fore of no little importance that the plant 

 adopted by the legislature should be one 

 worthy of the object in view, and the ripe- 

 ness of the times. 



Above all, when a good plan is adopted, 

 let it not be rendered of little value by 

 being entrusted for execution to the hands 

 of those who stand ready to devour the 

 loaves and fishes of state patronage. It is 

 easy to devise, but it is hard to execute 

 wisely ; and we warn the farmers in our 

 legislature, the State ^Lgricultural Society, 

 (which has already done such earnest ser- 

 vice in this good cause,) and the Executive 

 to guard against a failure in a great and 

 wise scheme, by entrusting its execution, to 

 any but those whose competence to the 

 task is beyond the shadow of a doubt. 



NOTES ON THE EVERGREEN IVY> 



BY J. JAY SMITH, PHILADELPHIA. 



It has always appeared unaccountable, 

 that the evergreen ivy should be so much 

 neglected as it is in America. In the time 

 of Kalm, he found only one plant, which 

 was trained against a house, during the 



whole of his travels in this country ; and to 

 this day it is entirely too rare. It is ex- 

 tremely ornamental, readily propagated, and 

 produces effects that no other plant can do. 

 A whole ugly village might be changed in 



