248 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



A professorship in agriculture is attached to the university in 

 Edinburgh, and the chair filled by an eminent professor, Mr. 

 Low, who has rendered the most useful public services, in the 

 publication of his treatise on agriculture, which is said to 

 contain the substance of his lectures at this institution. He has 

 likewise established an extensive agricultural museum, contain 

 ing specimens of agricultural productions, and models of the 

 various implements used in improved husbandry. The term 

 required to complete such a course of education, might be matter 

 of after consideration ; but I would advise, in every case, that 

 the residence should be absolute, the rules exact and stringent, 

 and the annual or occasional examinations as severe as at the 

 military school at West Point, so that an equal proficiency might 

 be secured. 



XXXVI. ELEVATION OF AGRICULTURE AS A 

 PURSUIT AND A PROFESSION. 



Where it is practicable, I would make the education of a high 

 and extended character ; and, besides the art of measuring, and 

 surveying, and mapping land, I would have the arts of sketching, 

 and drawing, and landscape gardening, taught in the institution. 

 The pursuit of agriculture is almost universally considered as 

 merely a profession of commerce or trade, the farmer looking 

 wholly to its pecuniary results. In a trading community, 

 pecuniary considerations are always liable to control the judg 

 ment, and predominate over every other consideration. Where 

 the means are limited, and the farm must be cultivated as the 

 only source of subsistence, pecuniary returns must, of course, be 

 the main object. Where, as in England, the cultivator is not 

 the owner of the soil, but an annual rent must be paid, and he 

 is liable, as in most cases, to be compelled to quit his occupancy 

 at the pleasure or the caprice of his landlord, farming must be 

 conducted merely as matter of business, and there is no induce 

 ment to pursue the profession as matter of taste or sentiment. 

 In many cases in my own country, it must, of necessity, be 



