MODEL FARM. 239 



XXXII. MODEL FARM. 



To the departments which may be called literary and scientific, 

 the Agricultural College at Cirencester proposes to add those 

 which are strictly practical, by connecting with the institution a 

 farm of five hundred acres. Practical experience is of the high 

 est importance in every practical art. If it be true, that no man 

 can be a thorough sailor who has not served before the mast, and 

 who is not familiar with every rope in the ship, it may be as 

 truly said, that no one should consider himself fully competent 

 to the management of a farm, who is not thoroughly acquainted 

 with every operation to be performed on a farm ; and, though 

 he may not always be able to execute it himself, he should know 

 how it is to be done, and be able to determine when it is properly 

 executed. 



A model farm is intended to illustrate, as far as the nature of 

 the soil and climate admit, the best practices in husbandry ; to 

 show the management of a farm in the details and in the whole ; 

 to teach the arts of ploughing, sowing, harrowing, cultivating, 

 reaping, harvesting, stacking, threshing, and preparing the 

 products for market ; to explain the management and treatment 

 of all live stock on the place, whether designed for food or labor, 

 for fattening or working, for beef, mutton, pork, wool, or dairy 

 produce ; to teach the whole duty of a shepherd or grazier, and 

 the whole management of the stall and the dairy. These are 

 the objects proposed ; and it is intended that the labor of the farm 

 shall be performed by the pupils, and its products go towards 

 the support of the institution, so as to reduce the expenses of 

 education. All this is well, and may be made eminently useful 

 to the pupils. 



