296 IMPORTANCE OF DIFFUSING 



regulated, that future practice will be most certainly 

 made better. This can be done at little or no expense ; 

 and in regard to imparting this knowledge, there can be 

 no opposition of interests between the clergy and the 

 rural laity. In most places, the parents will regard the 

 new instruction as a boon to their children, and will be 

 proud of their knowledge. They will, in most cases, also 

 be delighted to see their children apply this knowledge 

 under their own eye ; and if they themselves refuse their 

 assent to the introduction of this better culture, it is sure 

 to be seen on the farms to which their sons succeed. To 

 all, therefore, who have an indirect interest in the better 

 tillage of the land by tliose who hold it, the diffusion of 

 such knowledge among the young in our rural districts 

 at home, as well as abroad, ought to be a chief concern. 

 Especially in our home islands, now when rents are 

 falling, if knowledge can by possibility be made to keep 

 them up without diminishing the comforts or reasonable 

 profits of the farmer, it ought to be liberally, and with a 

 ready hand, scattered among the children of the people. 



To be generally available, however, the mode in which 

 this is done should be easy, short, inexpensive, involving 

 little change in the ordinary school-routine, little new 

 machinery, and little interference with the customary 

 school-teaching, in kind or quantity. All this, I think, 

 may be effected, if the eye is kept bent upon the one 

 object — that of instructing the children in agr{cultu7'al 

 principles^ and their modes of application. These are 

 comparatively few In number — can be simply expressed, 

 so as to be intelligible to the very young ; and can be 

 taught in so short a time as to interfere in no necessary 

 degree with the usual branches of education. 



It is difficult to impress this clearly and distinctly 

 either upon the general mind, upon that of teachers 

 themselves, or even upon that of school-inspectors. The 

 principles I speak of are deduced from scientific inquiry — 



