PRACTICAL EDUCATION TO AGRICULTURE. 535 



hiring and managing the proper workmen to carry out the 

 details, the principal himself knowing, when finished, whether 

 it be well, or illy done. More failures are made in life for 

 want of a proper education to business, than from any other 

 known cause. If there be any science in a man s or woman s 

 occupation (and there is science even in turning a spade full 

 of earth), he or she will be successful, with due industry, 

 just in proportion as the principles of this science are un 

 derstood. The merchant generally acquires liis knowledge 

 of the laws underlying his profession after he leaves his 

 clerkship, and too often through gross mistakes, which, lead 

 ing to failure, make him begin anew. It is, therefore, the 

 province of mercantile schools and business colleges so to 

 instruct the student that he will understand business prin 

 ciples and usages. So of all schools of technology. Why 

 not, then, the same with the farmer? 



The difference between practical and theoretical education, 

 is that the first begins just where the other leaves off. The 

 practical education of the physician begins in the lecture 

 and dissecting rooms and in the laboratory. This is con 

 tinued, as he goes along, all through life, and until death 

 overtakes him. The farmer, like the physician, has to prac 

 tically educate himself, and, like the physician, never ceases 

 to learn while life lasts. 



Agricultural colleges should be so organized and equipped 

 that the student may there investigate the useful subjects 

 which he has no proper facilities for doing on the farm, and 

 also examine and compare each year s experiments, and note 

 their results. 



The ordinary farmer is not able to give his children more 

 than one, two, or three years of scientific education. In 

 this time the student should acquire a knowledge of the 

 nature and composition of soils, and of the economy of animal 



