224 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



officiallyj to receive a circular most respectably signed, and en- 

 dorsed by a county agricultural society, urging an appeal to the 

 legislature to establish a State Agricultural School for the educa- 

 tion of agricultural teachers, male and female j a county school 

 " for the education of town and district teachers," of the same kinc 

 male and female ; and lastly, " similar district schools for the edu- 

 cation of the great mass of the people." The requisite sums to . 

 carry these several institutions into effect, to be borrowed from thei 

 common school fund. The circular urges that uniformity in teach- 

 ing the various branches would thus be secured, and " the bless- 

 ings of a thorough and ^practical ' education would be more gen- 

 erally and sooner disseminated." Other benefits and reasons areij 

 urged which there is not room here to transcribe.* 



Now if " three-fourths of the effective laborers of our country] 

 are engaged in agricultural pursuits," as is alleged in the preamble 

 ot the above propositions, and if " the blessings of a thorough ana 

 practical education would be more generally and sooner dissemi- 

 nated" by these schools, why borrow from the common school 

 fund 1 Shall that vast fund, the property of all, be left to educate 

 the few — one-fourth of the people — and thus render the schools 

 free to that one-fourth, (as it assuredly would, if they alone re- 

 ceived the avails of it,) while the other three- fourths shall borrou 

 a pittance from it for their education — to be repaid with " inter- 

 est" — the " farms and buildings (of the agricultural schools) mort- 

 gaged to secure the payment of said loan" — the state and county 

 agricultural societies held responsible for the annual interest !'" 

 Why not appropriate the avails of the common school fund at once 

 to the support of these agricultural schools, and let the minon^ 

 borrow and give securities for repayment 1 Or rather, why not 

 convert our State Normal School into a State Agricultural Normal 

 School, our common schools into district agricultural schools, as 

 could be done, by changing the course of studies ! What equita- 

 ble or valid objection could be urged against this metamorphose, 

 if dXi agricultural education is really the proper and necessary ele- 

 mentary education of a vastly preponderating majority of our peo- 



• Among them, one of perhaps questionable interest to at least a portion of th« 

 medical faculty ! One of the benefits which it is claimed would result from the course 

 of study proposed is that " it would give such a knowledge of chemistry, anatomy,, 

 physiology, and the laws which govern the animal economy, that quackery in the 

 iiealing art would cease, and many valuable lives would thus be saved ! 



