272 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Versailles, and many inferior schools, carried on in a small 



way, where, in addition to the elements of education, more or 



less instruction is given in agriculture, and where the pupils 



have to work ; and this is the case in many other continental 



countries. In some of their schools the preponderance of other 



studies is so great that it is not easy to see why they are called 



agricultural schools. There are, besides, many special schools 



which are frequently called agricultural schools ; as, for 



instance, the school for the management of forests, at Tharand. 



It is desirable that we should fix in our minds some definite 



aim and develop beforehand the precise object that we wish to 



attain ; that is, whether we shall establish a college on the plan 



of the higher scientific institutes abroad, or on that of the 



schools of practice, contenting ourselves with a lower scale of 



scientific attainment for the sake of the advantages of a more 



skilful, and perhaps a more enlightened practice. It is hardly 



reasonable to expect, if we may judge from the experience in 



other countries, to make thoroughly scientific agriculturists in 



the course of two or three, or even four years, if a large part 



of the time of the pupil is to be devoted to manual labor on 



the farm. At the same time it may be said that we do not wish 



to educate our sons so as to make them feel above work on 



the farm. No school that accomplished such a result would 



long commend itself to the confidence of the people. 



The work of deciding this question satisfactorily and of carry- 

 ing into operation a scheme of such magnitude as that now 

 proposed in most of the loyal States of the Union is one of great 

 difficulty and responsibility, and one in which the parties on 

 whom the responsibility rests will need the confidence, the 

 forbearance and the cordial cooperation of the people. It will 

 require caution, judgment and practical wisdom, on the one 

 hand, and a candid appreciation of the difficulties and the 

 entertainment of reasonable expectations, on the other. It 

 will require faith in the application of science to the inaprove- 

 ment of practice. We know that it has elevated other arts, 

 improved the appliances of labor and cheapened the production 

 of the necessaries of life. Why should it not lead, within a rea- 

 sonable time, to more enlightened processes of farm-work, bring 

 mind and thought to bear upon the labors of the hand, and 

 infuse new spirit into the whole farming community ? 



