EDUCATION OF THE FARMER. 231 



under the regulations of such institutions,* they will take up stu- 

 dies in their proper order. 



The question now occurs, can these institutions, by the estab- 

 lishment of the proposed professorships, do all that can be properly 

 now done-all that is feasible, in the premises ? Differinjr from 

 the editor of the Quarterly Journal, I think not. I see no objec- 

 tion in theory or practice to the establishment of a State Agricultu- 

 ral School, with an experimental farm. There can be no more 

 impropriety in legislating and appropriating the public funds, 

 to instruct our people in an art from which three-fourths of them 

 directly derive their subsistence, than to teach a few of them a pro- 

 fession.! The theory of legislation would be in both cases the 

 same, to wit : the promotion of the general good. No one in his 

 senses, surely, will deny that whatever tends to promote that 

 branch of industry which gives food and raiment to man, which 

 physically, at least, sustains and lies at the bottom of all the other 

 avocations of industry, promotes directly and tangibly the general, 

 the universal good. 



With such a school— with the proposed professorships in our 

 higher institutions-and with the agricultural press, I would at 

 jpresent leave the work. Knowledge is diffusive in its tendencies, 

 lespecially in a republic. If the means proposed do not enoucrh, 

 we can gradually add to them. Eut let no rash hand attempt^'to 

 overthrow our present system of elementary education, to build up 

 m its stead a system having for its object specially the education 

 of those of any art, or trade, or profession ! To adopt the senti- 

 ment of" gifted son of New England,| let our common schools 

 f-emain the broad platform where the sons of the rich and the poor 

 -those of all arts, trades and professions, shall start in the career 

 if honor and usefulness together. 



; 'Our academies do'not prescribe coursesof study. But there is an influence gene 



+ n.fr"i'^^"'f be always, exerted by their teachers, which results in the same thing. 

 T Uur medical colleges are directly endowed by the State. 

 t Heniy Barnard, 2d, Esq. of Rhode Island. 



