444 Abstract Report of Agricultural Discussions. 



Farm, near Tetbury, in Gloucestershire, farmed between 1760 and 

 1800. His annual journals and letters, wbicb I have seen, jirove him 

 to have been a shrewd, intelligent, and leading man among the agri- 

 culturists of that time, and he enjoyed a correspondence with men in 

 ranks much higher than his own. In a letter of his to Major Ogilvie, 

 of Forfarshire, there occurs the following passage, which, however 

 extravagantly worded, is, I think, worth quoting on this subject. He 

 says simply enough : — 



" I never knew a learued man who was a good farmer, and therefore I never 

 lamented the want of an education, The time of life to make men scholars, is 

 the time for observation in the farming line; and it rarely happens that a man 

 can be a proficient in that business unless he be trained to it from his youth." 



This was wTitten, let us recollect, long before the agricultural rela- 

 tions of the sciences had been worked out. He even adds : — 



"I would take a man that can neither read nor write, to make a liirmer, 

 sooner than I would the most learued man. The former has no knowledge but 

 what comes from Nature, and of good natural parts. The latter prides himself 

 upon his reading and his education, by which he thinks of pulling Nature out 

 of her course, and so of outdoing everybody." 



This is quoted as the utterance of a shrewd, intelligent, and suc- 

 cessful farmer, notwithstanding the xittcr absm-dity and fully of which 

 many will pronoimce it guilty, simply because of the trustworthy good 

 sound sense which I contend that it also displays. If I were address- 

 ing agricultm-al students, or felt in any degree rcsiionsible for their 

 success in after life, as, if their teacher, I should be, I would not utter 

 one word in praise of scientific instruction, if they v.'cre to infer from 

 it that it could in any degi-ee dispense with the absolute and paramoimt 

 necessity of practical knowledge and skill, and of that long-continued 

 patient observation of Nature and of practice from early yeai's by 

 which they can be best secm-cd. But it is plain that the old farmer, 

 however right he was to insist upon the need of a knowledge " that 

 comes from Nature," could have kno^Mi little of science, whicli he 

 here refers to under the words " learning " and " education," if he 

 supposed that its tendency was to make men try to put Natm'e out of 

 its com'se, and so outdo everybody. Science, which teaches us the 

 limits imposed by Nature, is, on the contrary, the guarantee of true 

 modesty and humility. 



I quote now a more modern example of a judgment on the point 

 imder discussion. The following story was told me long ago by the 

 Rev.. J. C. Clutterbuck, of Abingdon, and it has always seemed to me 

 fxill of useful truth on the subject of agricultural education. It is 

 some years since I fii'st put it into print, and it then immediately 

 went the round of the papers ; nevertheless, I tell it once more : 



" A young man fresh from the University, who had taken cordially to the 

 position of a country gentleman — and, among other occupations, had adopted 

 that of agriculturist — was riding roimd his land one morning with a neighbour 

 of long experience and well-proved practical ability and judgment as a farmer, 

 lie bstened with docility and good-will to the instruction and advice that were 

 given to him ; and, struck by the wisdom and good sense of his companion's 

 discourse, he at length exclaimed, ' Ah, Mr. , I wish I knew as much as 



