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spent upontwo?” The crowding of wheat originated the English saying : “ The 
worst weed for the corn is corn.” Who can doubt, in view of the recent splen- 
did suecess of inventors in originating horse-cultivators and improving wheat- 
drills, “ that sowing in rows with a machine which does not put two grains 
where there ought to be only one, nor leave only two where there ought to be 
four, is a true progress, and a great step towards amelioration based upon rea- 
sonable practice ?” ; 
It is a false theory that the practice of any community is the outgrowth of 
the average common sense of that community, and therefore right under the 
circumstances. It is a truth that people do not do as well as they know, and 
that they are apt to follow traditions from generation to generation, and espe- 
cially to fall into careless, easy, and slovenly habits. The practice here recom- 
mended is not a novelty, even in this country, and in England, more than a 
century ago, in Thomas Hale’s “ Complete Body of Husbandry,” it is said : “ We 
see drill and horse-hoeing husbandry produce larger crops in the same piece of 
ground than the common, and at less expense ; and this advantage arises from 
the breaking and dividing of the ground in the intervals with the hoe-plough.” 
AGRICULTURE IN COMMON SCHOOLS. 
The future is auspicious with evidences of a widely-spreading interest in in- 
dustrial education. Colleges are everywhere springing up, and the right men 
will eventually be found to fill professorships, and great good will finally result, 
while comparative successes will, for many years, be mingled with failures, in 
the numerous experiments growing out of these great educational enterprises. 
But the facilities to be furnished by these schools will never reach, directly, the 
great mass of the children in common public schools. Would it not be well to 
introduce into every district school in the country some primary works, inculcat- 
ing elementary principles of science, in their application to the practice of agri 
culture? An interest in agricultural education would thus arise among the 
youth in common public schools, from whose ranks our new industrial colleges 
would be filled. A series of such manuals, of foreign origin, have been submitted 
to several officials and men of science, by Mr. Joseph L. Smith, for a recom- 
mendation of the introduction of such means of instruction into the elementary 
schools of the land. They involve the principles of agricultural geology, chem- 
istry, farm accounts, farm practice, and domestic economy, and are written by 
Johnston, Stephens, Hodges, Campbell, Pringle, and others well known to 
science and to practical agriculture. The importance of the subject has been 
indorsed by Professor Henry, General Howard, the Commissioner of Indian 
Affairs, (Hon. N. G. Taylor,) and officers of the Department of Agriculture, 
and others. 
There is a want in this direction that should soon be supplied by American 
writers. The peculiar circumstances of American agriculture render necessary 
works expressly prepared to meet such conditions. Who is able to prepare one 
or more such manuals, in a manner worthy of the subject and of this progres- 
sive era? He who could worthily accomplish >it would be a great public bene- 
factor. There are good farmers who know little of science, and men of scienee 
with less knowledge of agriculture ; but it is difficult to find a thoroughly scien- 
tific writer who is, also, thoroughly acquainted with agricultural practice, and 
is thus able to apply correctly the principles of abstract science to the processes 
of agriculture. A clear thinker, and lucid writer, who could thus unite truth 
with action, and marry thought to labor, would be worthy of higher honors than 
the greatest savans of the time. 
