AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 29 



necessarily unfit any one for the business of life, and we would 

 see our youth growing up, reading — thinking — reasoning men. 

 Make them such, and we make them intelligent farmers. 



We do not intend here to go into the full consideration of the 

 methods of education adapted to our farming population, nor of 

 agricultural schools and colleges. This will afford ample mate- 

 rial for a further article. As far as agricultural information is con- 

 cerned, there is no want of sources from which to derive it. Pe- 

 riodicals devoted to this subject are numerous and increasing. 

 Books have been written and published, both practical and scienti- 

 fic, and all at little expense. A new literature is fast going through 

 the process of formation, and we may soon expect tn see the far- 

 mer's library as well stored as that of tlic professional man. Then 

 will agriculture be raised, as it should be, to the dignity of a pro- 

 fession, and its followers cease to be regarded as mere machines to 

 toil and dig, forgetful of their higher nature. 



II. Preparation for farming upon correct principles is an 

 individual concern. Every man must do it for himself. But 

 when we come to the application of these principles to prac- 

 tice, there is much that one or a few may do for the benefit of 

 the whole. What a man knows, he knows for himself; but 

 from what he does, thousands may learo to do the same. And 

 in this country, whose inhabitants are celebrated for " having 

 their eyes open," what is done by one is seen by all. And one 

 of the best stimulants for a young, or even an old farmer — if free 

 from prejudice in favor of the way his father did — to improve- 

 ment in the management of his farm, is to visit those that are well 

 conducted — to examine the manner in which they are managed — 

 the implements, the stock, the fences, the buildings, and the whole 

 condition of it. We were forcibly struck with the value of this, 

 upon reading the fact that an English proprietor, in order to give 

 his farmers an idea of the benefits of improved methods, had paid 

 their expenses while travelling to visit a district where farming 

 was conducted upon scientific principles. The effect was, that 

 they improved from that time, by adopting the plana they had 

 witnessed. But farms conducted upon such principles, are too rare 

 in this country to be easily found; and if they were to receive the 

 visits of all our farmers who need the example, we fear their en- 

 terprising proprietors would reproach us for the recommendation. 

 The neighborhood of our large cities and the borders of our 



