220 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



XXVI. GENERAL VIEWS OF AGRICULTURAL 

 EDUCATION. 



These details must all be useful to my own countrymen, 

 among whom the subject of agricultural schools has been much 

 discussed, and where a distinct proposition is already before the 

 public for the establishment of an institution of this nature. 

 Under these circumstances, I shall be excused if I extend my 

 remarks on this subject. I shall do this with unfeigned diffi 

 dence, and especially from my ignorance of the various estab 

 lishments for agricultural education upon the Continent. These 

 are often referred to as examples of success, and some of them 

 I hope to have an opportunity of inspecting. 



It is quite certain that the course of education pursued at 

 most colleges and universities is quite unsuited to qualify men 

 for the common business and pursuits of life. Indeed, it would 

 seem, in many cases, to operate as a positive disqualification : 

 and men who may have distinguished themselves at our univer 

 sities for their classical and scholastic attainments, are often 

 thrown upon society as helpless and as incompetent to provide 

 for themselves, or to serve the community, as children. We have 

 small encouragement at present, I confess, to look for any thing 

 better. The system of education at our colleges and universities 

 has undergone little substantial alteration for a century ; and 

 what is called classical learning, and the subtleties and puerilities 

 of scholastic divinity, occupy as much attention as formerly, 

 and hold a place in these ancient seats of learning so high in the 

 estimation of those to whom the management of these places 

 is intrusted, that there is little hope of dislodging them. I am 

 no enemy to classical acquirements, as a matter of elegant orna 

 ment and taste, as a source of delightful recreation, and as an 

 essential element in a complete education. But to give them a 

 preference in any way to learning more useful, substantial, and 

 practical, is not to estimate things according to their real im 

 portance. The time and expense devoted to them might be 

 given to studies infinitely more valuable. As to the time occu 

 pied in studying what is called divinity, I am not far from the 

 opinion that the world would be no loser if every commentary 



