IfFJ^jiMEo, 



Agriculture is the most Health}- and Honorable, as it is the most Natural and Useful pursuit of Man. 



VOL. X. 



ROCHESTER, N. Y.— FEBRUARY, 1849. 



NO. 2. 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 



It gives us especial pleasure to notice the strong 

 recommendation of Gov. Fish to the Legislature, to 

 endow an Agricultural School. A whole generation 

 has passed off the stage since Judge Bukl reported 

 a bill in the session of 1822-3, to establish such an 

 institution as is now for the first time commended by 

 an Executive of the Empire State. How sure, but 

 slow is the progress of public opinion ! Mental 

 training and professional study are deemed by every 

 body necessary to qualify a man to be an officer in 

 the army, the captain of a ship, a clergyman, lawyer, 

 surgeon, or any thing else of the least pretensions to 

 science, but farming. The professional agriculturist 

 is thought by many to need no particular knowledge 

 of the origin, composition, and capabilities of the 

 various soils which he cultivates. For him to study 

 the chemical difference between granitic, syenitic, 

 felspathic, slate, sandstone, and limestone rocks, by 

 the weathering and disintegration of which all the 

 minerals in his lands were derived, would be, in the 

 opinion of some, as waste of time. 



Thousands of practical farmers know that wood 

 ashes are excellent fertilizers, and contain considera- 

 ble potash and other valuable minerals, but they would 

 not permit their sons to attend an agricultural school 

 provided with a good laboratory to extract from the 

 parent rocks and soils every atom, whether potash, 

 lime, soda, magnesia, iron, chlorine, sulphur, phos- 

 phorus, flint, carbon, nitrogen, or the elements of 

 water, taken up by a forest tree or a cultivated plant. 

 They seem to cherish a kind of morbid, hydrophobia 

 dread of an increase of knowledge on the part of the 

 great agricultural interest of the country. Such men 

 would not take an agricultural journal on any account; 

 nor read a book on any rural topic, nor permit their 

 children to study one, lest some new light should dis- 

 turb their profound Rip Van Winkle sleep in after 

 years. 



Fortunately, the absolute rule of this class of far- 

 mers is drawing to a close. They have had their 

 day, and it has been a long and gloomy one. A new 

 era has dawned upon the world to bless the children 

 who are to follow the plow in after life. Unlike 

 their fathers, they will be taught to know what 

 changes the plow, harrow, cultivator and hoe effect 

 in tilled land. Every man sees that these imple- 

 ments which have been in use so long without a why 

 or a wherefore, neither add to, nor take away from 

 the soil. What chemical changes in the elements 



and combinations of earth do the plow and the hoe 

 bring about, so beneficial to the husbandman ? Who 

 can say that no farmer applies too much, none too 

 little labor, to give the most profitable return ? Who 

 dare assert that he adapts each fertilizer to the par- 

 ticular wants of every crop 1 and never fails to bow 

 or plant the kind of vegetable with the elements of 

 which his soil is most abundantly supplied 1 Who 

 is certain that he makes the best practical use of the 

 mold, manure, lime, potash, gypsum, bone dust, and 

 other substances appointed by Providence to form 

 every cultivated plant 1 Think of these things. 



Alas ! that so many should believe that they are 

 too wise to learn any more about the natural laws 

 which regulate the organization and growth of all 

 crops and domestic animals. Such have not begun 

 to study. Establish one good school, and the fact 

 will soon be apparent, that at least half a dozen more 

 should be added to the list. Indeed, we fear that 

 there may be so many sections, each eager to get the 

 institution located in its neighborhood, as to defeat 

 the scheme altogether for the present. This will be 

 the height of folly. Considering the efforts that 

 were made in that behalf in 1843, 4 and 5 by the 

 friends of the measure in Western New York, it 

 would seem to have a pretty strong claim to the 

 honor. But we care infinitely more for the advance- 

 ment of the cause, than for the location of the school. 

 We hope to live long enough to see honest manual 

 labor and high intellectual culture fairly united ; just 

 as God has united in the same person both hands to 

 work and a mind to reason. Science needs but to be 

 fairly understood to secure an enduring place in the 

 popular heart. 



Encouragement — Thanks. — During the past 

 month we have received abundant evidence of the 

 high estimation in which this journal is held by all 

 classes of citizens — farmers, mechanics, and mem- 

 bers of the learned professions. Though its chief 

 patronage is derived from agriculturist-, the Farmer 

 receives a large portion of its support from, or 

 through the influence of, men of other professions 

 and occupations. Many clergymen, physicians, me- 

 chanics and merchants in all sections of the Union, 

 are actively engaged in extending its circulation. 

 We would fain tender suitable acknowledgments to 

 all who are laboring to promote the cause of im- 

 provement in this manner. And we invite others to 

 present the Farmer to the attention of their friends. 



