356 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



life, and learned a more peaceful existence in tending his 

 flocks and herds. And, in like manner, this is perhaps one 

 reason why the agricultural colleges of our own country 

 have failed to accomplish all that was expected of them. 

 They have aimed at a higher education when no provision 

 had been made for the lower. They have tried to turn out 

 men fitted to take the lead in agricultural pursuits, when 

 these same men were incapable, from lack of previous train- 

 ing, to adequately profit by the instruction ofiered them. 



Second. The weight of testimony seems, on the whole, 

 to be in favor of divorcing theory from practice. Germany 

 has maintained that idea, gradually giving up its farms, or 

 retaining them simply for the sake of illustration. France, 

 on the other hand, has held the opposite opinion strongly, 

 and certainly its success would seem to warrant its belief. 

 Perhaps a few quotations from leading educators will best 

 show the grounds for this separation. Royer, in his " Ger- 

 man Agriculture," says : " The laborer, worn out by fatigue 

 and the stern demands of toil, cannot study, while the pupil 

 has too many things to learn to be able to practice." 



Mons. Risler, director of the Institut, defends its loca- 

 tion at Paris, and consequent separation from practice, in 

 these words: "In no other branch of industry, engineer- 

 ing, etc., have the schools the two-fold function of practice 

 and theory. The schools are theoretical, and the practice 

 is studied in the manufactories, the workshops, etc. Why 

 do otherwise in agriculture? If you pursue both practice 

 and theory, you will make bad practical men and bad 

 scientific men." 



Mons. de Miral, director of one of the Farm Schools, 

 says : "It is difficult for the director to obtain any profit 

 from the farm school as such, because the work done by the 

 apprentices is so frequently defective. They break the im- 

 plements, they lame the animals, they do so much damage 

 that their labor costs more than that of paid workmen. The 

 State ought, therefore, in justice, to augment its subvention 

 for the maintenance of the apprentices." And, in this coun- 

 try, Hilgard utters the following golden truths : " It is not 

 for the purpose of how to plow and hoe, but why they plow 

 and hoe at all, and when and where to do it to the best 



