AGRICULTURAL TEXT-BOOK. 5 



13. Agricultural education is necessarily divided into the theoretical 

 and th practical or the Science of Agriculture and the Art of Agricul 

 ture. The former involving the reasons of action, is properly learnt first ; 

 and may be imparted -without any connection with a farm ; the second, 

 including, as it doe?, manual dexterity, comparison, and experiment, 

 must necessarily be taught in the field. Or the two may be taught 

 imultaneously. There appear, however, in many cases, to be serious 

 reasons against the latter course. A student of law or medicine firei 

 completes his theoretical education, and then proceeda to practice ; and 

 thU seems to be the most rational course in agricultural education alao. 

 la the higher European Colleges, lectures are given in the field, afters 

 large amount of information has been acquired ; but, it is believed, that 

 the students are not required to labor. There is certainly no efficient 

 reason why a student of agriculture must necessarily spend a given poi- 

 tion of his time in physical toil ; the more especially, as the manual 

 operations of a farm are intrinsically simple, are easily learned, and 

 require rather the exercise of the muscles than of the mind. A museum of 

 rural objects, including models of implements, with likenesses of the best 

 stock; and a hospital for diseased animals; connected with occasional 

 visits to the best farms in the neighborhood, and to agricultural fairs, 

 will supply everything that is requisite for the full education of a young 

 man brought up on a farm ; the practical skill being acquired when be 

 returns home, to make agriculture the serious occupatian of his life. 



