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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



duce, and how it may be made to produce abund- 

 antly. These elements are different in different 

 parts of our commonwealth. There has been in 

 years past an entire want of preparation of young 

 farmers for the task they are to pursue. Much 

 has been said in this connection about extending 

 Agricultural education by establishing schools and 

 colleges, and model farms, all of which might be 

 made useful. But it had seemed to him that it 

 would be well to begin to introduce in the early 

 education of farmers' sons in our common schools, 

 those elements of agricultural knowledge which 

 are common to all. He knew not why practical 

 books adapted to the young, forming the first 

 principles of an agricultural education, such as the 

 characteristics of soils, the principles of geology, 

 &c, might not be introduced into our common 

 schools, and studied with as much propriety as 

 grammar, or arithmetic, or any of the other 

 branches. It had seemed strange to him that 

 while the Legislature had provided the means for 

 preparing the teachers in our schools to undergo 

 an examination in all other branches, it had never 

 occurred to that body that they should be required 

 to teach this. 



Dr. Gardner, of Seekonk, was next introduced. 

 The subject was one upon which he had bestowed 

 much thought, and he would suggest in regard to 

 it, first — that the best mode of advancing the in- 

 terests of the farmer would be to equalize the tax- 

 ation of the Commonwealth ; so that the farmers 

 should not be taxed any more in proportion than 

 any other classes. All property should bear its 

 due proportion of the burden of taxation. The 

 greater proportion of the agricultural community 

 are land owners, and land being a description of 

 property always accessible to the assessor, it is 

 generally fully taxed, while a large amount of 

 property invested in stocks, banks, &c. , is not taxed 

 at all. Hence an unequal share of the burden of 

 taxation comes upon the farmers. This he would 

 equalize ; and on our tariff systems he would have 

 no discriminations which would militate against the 

 farmers. Secondly, he would preserve as far as 

 possible the freedom of the country, because where- 

 ever there is not freedom, agriculture can do noth- 

 ing — it will die. It cannot flourish in a slave, as 

 in a free country. This point he illustrated and 

 enforced by comparing the States of Ohio and Ken- 

 tucky; showing that the former, a free State, had 

 increased in proportion as fast again as the latter 

 — a slave State. Thirdly, he would see to it that 

 the population of the State was educated, because 

 he believed that, after all, more depends upon the 

 brain than upon the muscle. As to the best mode 

 of education, there was a difference of opinion. 

 He believed it to be important to educate the 

 whole population, and should therefore go for in- 

 troducing the study of agriculture into all our 

 primary schools, and would also make it obligatory 



to have an agricultural department in all the Col- 

 leges of the State. It is important that agricul- 

 tural chemistry should be better understood, and 

 its first elements might be taught in the common 

 schools as well as the first elements of Physiology. 

 He had no objection to immediately establishing 

 an agricultural College, as some proposed, if that 

 is upon the whole deemed most desirable ; but he 

 should prefer, if it is to be established, that it 

 should teach other branches as well as those relat- 

 ing entirely to agriculture, in order that the farm- 

 ers' sons who desired to do so, might learn other 

 sciences — simultaneously with that of agriculture. 



Mr. Seth Sprague, of Duxbury, was next intro- 

 duced, and spoke from his own experience of the 

 want of a more extended knowledge of their call- 

 ing, among farmers. Give our farmers the knowl- 

 edge they need and he thought that even with our 

 barren, rugged soil, they could compete success- 

 fully with the farmers of the fertile West. Our 

 farmers need to bring in skill and science to enable 

 them to get fair a profit for their work. The great 

 question is, how shall we best disseminate agricul- 

 tural knowledge. We have the requisite industry 

 and every thing to apply, but we lack in the 

 requisite skill to apply it. He was satisfied that if 

 farmers understood their business thoroughly, our 

 farms might be made so productive as not only to 

 pay for the labor bestowed upon them, but to 

 yield also a return for the capital invested. The 

 speaker then alluded to the different projects of 

 agricultural schools, a Board of Agriculture, &c. — 

 and thought that something might be done 

 through our common schools, if the proper books 

 could be obtained ; but where, he asked, is the 

 man who can make a suitable book for this pur- 

 pose? We must, however, make a beginning, and 

 the community must be thoroughly taught in the 

 first great principles upon which agriculture is 

 founded. He closed by expressing the wish to see 

 the interests of the farming community promoted 

 by a wide diffusion of knowledge among its mem- 

 bers. 



Mr. Sheldon, of Wilmington, next spoke. He 

 thought that if farming was to become a branch of 

 education, it must be taught in our public schools. 

 He was opposed to an agricultural college, because 

 he believed it would be the means of increasing 

 rich farmers — that they would learn too much, 

 and not so many would get their living by it, as 

 do now. No young man can do anything in man- 

 ufacturing now, with a capital of $200 or $300, 

 because it is carried on by corporations and heavy 

 capitalists. He was afraid if they got up an agri- 

 cultural college the next thing would be corpora- 

 tions for carrying on farming. The more the 

 farmer learns in regard to his business, the more 

 he believed ho would still see before him that 

 ought to be learned. New fields for study would 

 be continually opening before him. He was satis- 



