MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



tary Academy are taught, the art of surveying and mapping — so far, at least, aa 

 to be able, by a knowledge of practical mathematics, to lay down the bound- 

 aries, and be able to calculate with exactness the contents, of every lot of his 

 land ? Should he not, by all means, endeavor to have him taught as much of 

 Botany as would enable him to tell the names and to classify the plants spring- 

 ing up everywhere under his feet, and to say whether noxious or medicinal ? 

 Ought not the rising generation of cultivators of the soil to be sulliciently in- 

 structed, in all our schools, in the principles of mechanical philosophy, to judge 

 of the power and suitableness of all agricultural machinery — whether or not it be 

 constructed in a form and on principles to achieve, with the least labor and cost,, 

 the greatest attainable results ? Ought not your sons, too, be taught at school, 

 as they are at our military schools, enough of Mineralogy and Chemistry, animal 

 and vegetable, to ascertain and describe the character and properties of lime, of 

 plaster, and all the various manures, the component parts of the soil, and of the 

 plants that grow on it — to designate the elements necessary to the production of 

 various crops — and, by analysis, to determine the value of these crops when used 

 to promote flesh in the bullock, milkiness in the cow, and wool on the sheep — 

 all the properties, in a word, that give value to domestic animals, to land and to 

 labor ? Should not the cultivated agriculturist — he who aspires to the honor that 

 ought to follow success in every calling — be as much ashamed to be ignorant of 

 those things which are so immediately connected with the intellectual prosecu- 

 tion of his business, as the commander of a ship who should be forced, in time 

 of danger, to acknowledge his ignorance of all the principles of navigation ? Or 

 are the independent republican, freehold cultivators of the American soil content 

 to hare their sons go on in their profession, working for ever as common sailors 

 before the mast, with no minds of their own — ready to let out or to reef, as they 

 are told — knowing, indeed, how to turn the glebe, but utterly ignorant of what 

 elements it is composed — expert to mow the grain, but totally without a knowl- 

 edge of the principles of vegetation, and of all the laws of vegetable physiology, 

 which refer to the qualities of the soil and regulate the value of the various 

 manures ? It would be absurd to suppose that such education can be absolutely 

 universal, but ought not all to aim at it who own land, and who are to superin.' 

 tend agricultural capital and labor ? 



Tell me not that farmers have no need of book knowledge, unless you would 

 degrade them to the level of the beasts they drive. There is no occupation which 

 can be so much benefited — none whose toils and condition demand and admit of 

 such variety of entertaining knowledge, or which derives more benefit from the 

 application of science than those of the farmer ; and this he may provide for his 

 son if he will begin by laying a broad foundation. That is, by providing, as I 

 have before said, an ample supply of well instructed, well paid teachers, under 

 whose example the office of instructor shall rise, as it deserves, above all others 

 in public esteem, and as it would then be elevated in public usefulness. 



It would not be long, after this shall have been accomplished, when the landed 

 interest of this country would cease to ask imploringly and submissively, "Where 

 can we obtain the means for this wide-spread diffusion of industrial knowledge ?" 

 for a much higher degree of popular intelligence would be reflected in the legis- 

 lation of the Government ; and that interest, with which all others flourish or 

 decay, as the branches sympathize with the root of the tree, would be the first, 

 instead of the last, to be cared for. Where, let me ask, have been obtanied the 

 htmdreds of millions— ay, hundreds of /ni7//ons— which your Representatives 



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