DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



Prussia, it teaches nothing tliat a luvcr of the 

 kxrgest liberty need fear — no more dangerous 

 absoluteism tlian that of absolute obedience to 

 tlic laws of pliysical science. (If I am in error 

 you will know it.) 



But it is to the latter part of his article I would 

 ask your attention and rebuke: '^ If agricul- 

 tural schools are wanicd in this state,'' &c. 

 This is either a compliment to the existing state 

 of agricultural knowledge, or an insult to the 

 former. Eeally, it says to tlie farmer, that his 

 occupation is so low that it needs not education, 

 as provided to elevate and improve other pro- 

 fessions. We know the editor values education 

 highly; it is only the farmer — the clown in the 

 country — that needs none, or if he discovers 

 that he could work his farm to better advan- 

 tage, with some other than mere intuitive know- 

 ledge, he must provide it for himself. Oh, I 

 wish the farmers of New- York Avould make 

 themselves heard this winter, not in the begging 

 terms of a few, " pestering the next legislature," 

 but in their strength, demanding to be placed 

 in a position of equal privileges in the means of 

 instruction, with the schools of Law, Physic and 

 Divinity. It was to ask your rebuke to the tone 

 and spirit of tliis article — the same that has 

 damped every effort hitherto — that I enclose it. 

 Your good efforts in behalf of agricultural edu- 

 cation, are telling surely, though slowly, and 

 gathering strength. 



I am about leavin"); this city for Apalachico- 

 la, wliere I shall be pleased to obtain and send 

 for you or your foreign friends, or others, any 

 indigenous plants, seeds, he, that you may 

 wish, and that may be obtainable. Very re- 

 spectfully, B. F. N. New-York, 8ih Nov. '51. 



We thank onr intelligent correspondent for 

 his timely notice of the leader in the Evening 

 Post — which we reprint for the benefit of our 

 readers. 



The Example of Prussia. — In one of the 

 morning journals, we perceive that the example 

 of Prussia is adduced as one which we ought to 

 follow in providing public instruction in agri- 

 culture. Prussia has, it is said , five agricultural 

 colleges, besides ten schools of a more elemcn- 

 tai'y character. She has seven schools to teach 

 the cultivation of flax, two for showing how 

 nieadow-lands should be managed, one lor in- 

 structing boys in the care of .sheep, and forty- 

 idel farms. AVe are asked to make Prus- 

 pattern in this matter, and the next 

 ure of the State of Kew-York is to be 



pestered with plans for raising money to endow 

 agricultural colleges. 



Jn Prussia everything is done by the govern- 

 ment. The government founds and regulates 

 the universities as well as the common .schools; 

 the government provides for religious instruc- 

 tion, for the building of churches and the ap- 

 pointment and sustenance of the clergy. It docs 

 all this without asking the leave of the people; 

 not for the reason that the people would not 

 provide as well by voluntary arrangements for 

 their own spiritual and liteiary instruction, hut 

 partly because it dcsius to have all the institu- 

 tions of education, o( every sort, in its own 

 hands, in order that the pupils may be trained 

 up in such a manner as to make quiet subjects 

 of an absolute government; and, in the next 

 place its policy is to keep the people from en- 

 gaging in public enterprises of any kind. I'or 

 all undertakings which bear the least resem- 

 blance to political transactions, for every insti- 

 tution, of any kind, which has any influence on 

 public ojiinion, the jjcople are taught to look to 

 the government. The government teaches; the 

 l)eo{)le learn and obey — public business is made 

 to tlie mass a mysteiy, Avilh the transaction of 

 which they arc not to intermeddle, nor presume 

 to discuss. 



This is the sort of government whose acts arc 

 held up to the State of New- York as an ex- 

 ample. We are to go on, if this cla.'^s of poli- 

 ticians are allowed to manage our afi'airs, ac- 

 cumulating all manner of cares upon the govern- 

 ment till llie government agency has everywhere 

 sujiplanted individual enterprise and activity, as 

 it has in Prussia. 



If agricultural .schools are wanted in this 

 state, if there is any better institution for teach- 

 ing how to take care of sheep, and manage 

 meadow lands, than the farm of one of our in- 

 telligent yeomen, there is none, the establish- 

 ment of which by voluntary cnterpri.se, is so 

 easy. Any man who under.stands practical 

 agriculture, with such a knowledge of the aux- 

 iliary sciences as are necessary for the present 

 improved modes of cultivation, might establish 

 a school, in which the jmpils would jiay for their 

 instruction by certain stated service, which of 

 themselves would advance their progress in the 

 arts of tillage and husbandry. Agricultural 

 schools would, in this way, be the most econom- 

 ical of all. and the scholar would be tiained up. 

 without expense, to the highest degru; of jirac- 

 tical exijertness, accom])anied with a competent 

 degree of theoretical knowledge. 



In this manner model farms might bn estab- 

 lished in every county. If there is a real de- 

 mand for agricultural instruction in a formal 

 shape, how docs it hap])cn that we have no in- 

 stitutions of this kind already established? If 

 the demand for them Avas urgent and the jjcojiIc 

 impatient, institutions on the frugal basis we 

 have mentioned, would be founded all over the 

 country. 



Tlie only conclusion to which we can 

 is, that there is as yet no call among 11 



