NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



99 



takes and keeps the hint given by the central sta- 

 tion, as to the number of strokes needed, is very 

 neat, and exquisite in its ingenuity. 



Now as soon as "all's out," another signal noti- 

 fies the watchman. An eighth key sets all the 

 bells to striking twice and once, twice and once ; 

 dom, dom — dom; dom, dom — dom. Then every 

 fireman knows he is needed no longer and may go 

 home. 



The suggestion and almost all the details of this 

 comprehensive plan are due to our townsman. Dr. 

 "William F. Channing. With his persevering zeal, 

 and his clear explanation, he has persuaded the 

 City Government of its utility. He has been 

 seconded, by Mr. M. G. Farmer and other intelli- 

 gent co-operators, who are now putting up the 

 boxes — all the rest of the machinery being pre- 

 pared, so that there is no room, we trust, to doubt 

 the success of the first complete experiment. 



A Hint to Blacksmiths. — The cutting of bars of 

 iron or pipes with the chisel, is a laborious and 

 tardy process. By the following mode the same 

 end is attained more speedily, easily and neatly : 

 Bring the iron to a white heat, and then fixing it 

 in a vice, apply the common saw, which, without 

 being turned in the edge, or injured in any respect, 

 will divide it as easily as if it were a carrot. 



Cabies' Department. 



For the New England Farmer. 



FEMALE EDUCATION. 



Messrs. Editors : — Sometime since, I promised 

 you an article, or some articles, upon the subject 

 of health and education ; these having been for 

 several years my chief theme. I have read your 

 valuable paper for some months with great pleas- 

 ure and interest, and will now endeavor to redeem 

 my pledge to write "somewhat" for its columns. 



My present subject is female education. In 

 speaking upon this subject, allow me to premise, 

 that I do not appear as an advocate for ultraism, 

 or, as what has been technically called woman's 

 rights — though, I hope to make no objection to 

 their having their rights. 



The subject of female education, within the 

 memory of the writer, (who has not yet lived half 

 a century) was but little thought of. Men, and 

 women too, who would strain every nerve, and en- 

 dure great privations and expense to educate their 

 sons, felt no necessity, and put forth no effort, to 

 confer educational endowments upon their daugh- 

 ters. It seemed, in the language of the learned 

 and facetious Trumbul, as though 



"They loved Mahomet's rules, who holds 

 That women ne'er were born with souls," 



or intellects of any kind. Even clergymen, civil 

 officers and professed instructors, were all in this 

 condemnation. But within the last twenty-five 

 years, a change, much for the better, has come 

 over the community, and much more in keeping 

 with the Christian religion. In all the States of 



our union, female seminaries have been reared, 

 richly endowed, and furnished with competent 

 teachers. These have arisen through private mu- 

 nificence. Also, in our own commonwealth (and 

 I think in some others) the public coffers have been 

 opened for this same benevolent purpose, and the 

 result has been the establishment of normal schools 

 for the thorough literary qualification of female 

 teachers ; and those who have had the most to do 

 with instruction in our public schools, have been 

 convinced that females make by far the best and 

 most successful instructors in them ; especially is 

 this the case with the younger portion, (which is 

 much the larger) of the pupils. It is the opinion 

 of many of the lovers of education, that it wovdd 

 be preferable to employ female teachers to males, 

 even at the same salaries. 



The enterprise of female education, which has 

 for some time been thus smiled upon by private 

 benefaction, and by the public endowment of nor- 

 mal schools, has recently received a new impetus 

 by the regular chartering of literary colleges for 

 females in several of the States of the union, of which 

 there is one in Georgia, one in Missouri, and in 

 several other States. These colleges have all the 

 endowments, rights and privileges that are con- 

 ferred upon the colleges of the land for the educa- 

 tion of young men. They have power, and exer- 

 cise it, of conferring degrees upon all who pursue 

 a regular course of study for three years, and sus- 

 tain a good and satisfactory examination upon the 

 branches authorized and required to be studied by 

 the faculty of such college. 



This is as it should be. What valid reason can 

 be advanced against it 1 With such examples of 

 eminent women as have arisen in the world, it is 

 quite too late to attempt to maintain that females 

 are incompetent to attain as thorough and as fin- 

 ished an education, in all the branches of science 

 and literature, as males. TheMoores, the Hales, 

 the Sigourneys, and an almost innumerable mul- 

 titude of others, stand up in fearful array against 

 such an opinion. 



To give, in the last place, the finishing stroke 

 of education to females, a complete medical edu- 

 cation is now proposed to be conferred upon all 

 who seek it. To this end a college has been char- 

 tered, called the "Female Medical College, of 

 Pennsylvania," located in the city of Philadelphia. 

 It has as full a faculty and possesses all the pow- 

 ers and privileges of any other medical institution 

 in that Athens or emporium of medical science. 

 It is now giving its second annual course of lec- 

 tures to a respectable class,— a class much larger 

 in number than were the classes of males which 

 attended the earlier courses of medical lectures 

 either in Philadelphia or Boston. 



It is well known, also, that efforts have been 

 making for several years past to educate females 

 for practising certain branches, in this community ; 



