SOLON ROBINSON, 1838 99 



A thought strikes me of another work worthy of "a 

 premium lot," — an Agricultural Dictionary; to be used 

 not only as a necessary accompaniament to the series of 

 school-books, but as an invaluable work in the hands of 

 every cultivator. I venture to say, that there are not 

 one half of the readers of the Cultivator, (and no paper 

 uses less unintelligable phrases,) who are not often puz- 

 zled to give the proper signification to necessarily com- 

 mon words. — And to youth, the common names of soils, 

 earths, and parts of plants, &c. are all Greek. To prove 

 it, select fifty words that are found in every agricultural 

 work, such as argillaceous, silicious, phosphate, sulphate, 

 hydrate, carbonaceous, stamens, stolens, et cetera, (in- 

 cluding the "et cetera,") and ask fifty of the first persons 

 that you meet, to give you an intelligible definition of 

 them, and see whether the answers do not demonstrate 

 a very great necessity for our agricultural dictionary. 

 If the publication of one cannot be induced, let me ask 

 whether a page of your paper might not be profitably 

 devoted to that purpose. 1 It is a great fault in all edu- 

 cation, that we teach words without conveying any defi- 

 nite idea of their meaning. 



One of the great benefits which I hope to live to see 

 grow out of the formation of "the American Society 

 for Agriculture," is an improved system of education 

 throughout the whole country. I commend to your par- 

 ticular notice an article in No. 51, of the Franklin 

 Farmer, upon "Agricultural Education." 



What think you of a universal petition from all the 

 friends of agricultural improvement and education in the 

 U. S. to the next congress, for the establishment of a 

 national agricultural school ? Are we so much more of a 



1 The Genesee Farmer began such a glossary in 1839. When the 

 paper was combined with the Cultivator at the beginning of 1840, 

 the "Dictionary of Terms" was carried over with a comment on its 

 excellent reception. The numbers which had appeared in the 

 Farmer were reprinted "to furnish it complete" to the readers of 

 the Cultivator. See Cultivator for January, 1840 (7:11-12), and 

 following numbers. 



