ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. 5 



upon the nature of sun-heat and sun-light, and we shall find 

 that plant and animal life are intimately connected with 

 the phenomena essentially belonging to the domain of the 

 physicist, the astronomer, and the electrician. And yet it 

 would be most unfortunate that the agricultural teacher 

 should find himself in the position of attempting to teach all 

 of the above-named subjects, and probably of many others 

 which have not been named, in his efforts to impart a sound 

 knowledge upon the theory or principles of agriculture. He 

 must confine himself to his particular province, and in order 

 to do so successfully it would be well that he should endeavour 

 to find a parallel by which to guide his own method. Take, 

 for example, surgery, a subject upon which many sciences 

 shed their light, and yet a teacher of surgery, while recog- 

 nizing the importance of these branches, and while pointing 

 out their bearings upon his own particular topic, must not 

 fly off at a tangent and become a teacher of sanitary science, 

 of pathology, or of therapeutics. A teacher of agriculture 

 must keep his own subject steadily before him as a large 

 practical occupation involving the expenditure of large sums 

 of money, and a knowledge of mankind as well as of animals, 

 vegetables, and the soil. The fact is that in order to teach 

 the theory of agriculture a Faculty is required just as much as 

 in the teaching of medicine, of law, or of divinity. It is too 

 much to expect one man to grasp the whole of this world- 

 wide subject, and therefore in any agricultural college or 

 seminary it is necessary that chairs should be established for 

 the teaching of chemistry, geology, physiology, anatomy, 

 biology, physics, mathematics, estate management, building, 

 and agriculture. The agricultural teacher ought to indicate 

 the points of contact between his own subject and the sciences 

 which surround it, rather than to pursue the explanation 

 into those other domains. 



If I were to endeavour to describe the boundaries and 





