AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 221 



upon the Scriptures, and every treatise upon the controversial 

 subjects of religion, since the days of the apostles, were extin 

 guished forever, and men were sent to the New Testament, and 

 to the simple teachings of the Divine Master, only, to learn their 

 duty, and the only elements of true happiness and moral improve 

 ment. A college, therefore, of the practical arts, and of those 

 sciences which directly bear upon practice, must be greatly 

 desired by that portion of the community whose education 

 must be to them a means of subsistence, and who have little 

 time to cultivate the arts but with a view to apply them at once 

 to the purposes of practical life. 



It must be admitted, likewise, that many of these arts and 

 sciences are, properly speaking, the creations of modern times, 

 and could not be expected to find their place in schemes of edu 

 cation formed in a remote period. Chemistry, mineralogy, geol 

 ogy, and electricity, are all of modern date. There are those 

 living, who may be said to have assisted at their birth, and have 

 rocked the cradle of their infancy. All these are intimately 

 connected with the practical arts, and especially with the ad 

 vancement of the great art of agriculture ; and we may confi 

 dently look for the most important benefits to agriculture from 

 the study and application of these sciences. Botany, likewise, 

 and the nature, habits, and uses of plants ; comparative anatomy 

 and physiology, the study of which may prove so useful in the 

 improvement of the breeds of domestic animals, and in the treat 

 ment of the diseases and injuries to which they are liable ; the 

 art of measuring superficies and solids, an art so constantly in 

 demand in practical agriculture ; mechanics, and the construc 

 tion of farming implements and buildings ; hydraulics, a science 

 so important in draining, irrigation, and the general management 

 of water, and the uses of steam, that wonderful agent, which 

 seems destined to exert a more powerful influence over the 

 affairs and common business of the world than any or than all 

 other agents besides ; the principles of engineering, in the con 

 struction of roads and embankments all these are matters to 

 be learned and Studied, as furnishing direct uses and aid in the 

 practice of agriculture, and bearing immediately upon its ad 

 vancement. These considerations flemonstrate the importance 

 of an institution, where such branches may be taught under the 



