AGHICULTURAL EDUCATION. 



BY HENRY H. GOODELL. 



" How CAN HE GET WISDOM THAT HOLDETH THE PLOW, AND THAT GLORIETH 

 IN THE GOAD, THAT DRIVETH OXEN, AND IS OCCUPIED IX THEIH LABORS, AND 

 WHOSE TALK IS OF BULLOCKS." 



An answer to the pertinent inquiry contained in the above 

 quotation will form the subject-matter of the paper to-day. 

 But Agricultural Education, the topic assigned me, is one 

 so general in its nature that it has seemed necessary to limit 

 its consideration to a discussion of the methods pursued in 

 those three countries, France, Germany and Great Britain, 

 where it has received the most careful attention. Each with 

 a system of its own, — each differing widely from the others, 

 yet each tending towards the same end, and so successful in 

 its results, that the face of nature itself has been changed, 

 and the barren lands and sodden wastes have been trans- 

 formed into the very gardens of the world. 



In looking at the system in Germany, we are stmck in the 

 first place with its completeness, — a Central Bureau presid- 

 ing over the whole, — three or perhaps four intermediate 

 stages, leading up to the rounded whole in the University, — 

 each a link in the chain, complete in itself, and yet abso- 

 lutely necessary to advance to a higher grade. It shows a 

 persistent effort on the part of the various State governments 

 to take advantage of every period in the development of 

 the mind of those destined to agricultural pursuits. 



For every stage of intellectual development, a school with 

 open doors awaits the seeker after higher knowledge. But it 

 is not merely to the seeker that these advantages are offered ; 

 for, by requirement of law, the children of the poorer classes 



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