1848. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



21 



never having themselves tested their theories, 

 may produce much more cost than benefit to the 

 agricuhural interest in the present condition of 

 our countr3^ Elementary instruction is all im- 

 portant to the agricultural interest : J. 



An important step has been made to promote agricultural 

 education in Scotland. During the late agricultural meet- 

 ing at Glasgow, a number of gentlemen, favorable to the 

 establishment of elementary schools for the purpose, met in 

 the Mechanic's Hall, when, besides gentlemen connected 

 with the Agricultural Chemistry Association of Scotland, 

 several strangers attended, including Lords VVallscourt, 

 Clements, Ranelagh, Sir Robert Bateman, Sir R. Houston, 

 and others. The Lord Justice Clerk took the chair, and 

 Professor Johnstone explained the object of the meeting. 

 Mr. Skilling, superintendent of a model farm at Glassnevin, 

 near Dublin, under the Irish Board of Education, made a 

 statement of the measures carried out by the board since 

 1838. There are now three thousand teachers under the 

 board ; there are seven training establiskments to supply 

 teachers, but there will shortly be twenty-live, and it is in- 

 tended to plant one in every county of Ireland. Mr. Skil- 

 ling described the plan pursued at the Glas.sneviri training 

 school established in 1838. The labor is limited to spade 

 husbandry, only the spade and wheel-barrow being used. 



" The scholars, amounting to sixty or seventy, were 

 lodged near the farm, and fed from it. After being engaged 

 on the farm in the mornings of live days in the week, Ihey 

 went. into the town for their literary education; but the 

 whole of Saturday was appropriated to examinations.— 

 They had a garden, and, in connection with it, a competent 

 gardener, who lectured for a half hour in the morning ; and 

 he (Mr. Skilling) also lectured to the young men on Agri- 

 cultural subjects. At stated periods tlie teachers attended 

 the farm, and witnessed every practical operation which 

 was going on upon it. They observed every system of 

 cropping, and got explanations on every subject with wliieh 

 they were acquainted ; and the result was, that when they 

 went away, at the end of the course, they were found to be 

 vastly improved in the scientific knowledge of agriculture 

 and its practical details. During the course, they were en- 

 abled to obtain a considerable knowledge of agriculture, 

 chemistry, and geology ; they also received practical infor- 

 mation as to the principles of rotation in cropping, the culti- 

 vation of green crops, and the like. The practical errors 

 which existed, as to the management of land, were also 

 pointed out to them, such as the loss caused by bad fences, 

 seeding beds by weeds, &c.; and, on the olher hand, they 

 were shown the advantages of draining, and opening, and 

 turning the land, and the beneficial results of these on the 

 general management." 



This model farm had not only paid its rent, but returned 

 a profit of £150 or £170 a year. Afterwards five boys, edu- 

 cated in a training school at Larne, in the north of Ireland 

 were introduced and examined. 



" They seemed to belong to the better class of peasantry, 

 being clad in homely garbs, and they appeared to be from 

 twelve to fourteen or fifteen years of age. They were ex- 

 amined in the first instance by Mr. Gibson, inspector of 

 schools, on grammar, geography, and arithmetic, and scarce- 

 ly a single question did they fail to answer correctly. They 

 were then examined by professor Johnstone on the scentific 

 branches, and by Mr. Finnic, of Swanton, and Mr. Alexan- 

 der, of Southbar, on the practical departments of agriculture. 

 Their acquaintance with these was delightful and astonish- 

 ing. They detailed the chemical constitution of the soil, 

 and the eiVect of manures, the land best fitted for green 

 crops, the different kinds of grain crops, the dairy, and the 

 system of rotation. Many of these subjects required con- 

 siderable exercise of reflection ; and, as a previous concert 

 between themselves and the gentlemen by whom they were 

 examined was out of the question, their acquirements seem- 

 ed to take the meeting quite by surprise, at the same time 

 that they afforded the utmost satisfaction, as evincing how 

 much could be done by a proper system of training. The 

 youths and their teachers retired amidst much applause.' 

 Lord Clements bore testimony relative to the eagerness 

 for instruction evinced by the peasantry n?ar his property. 

 in the wildest part of Connauglit — men twenty years of age 

 coming from a distance of many miles to attend the school. 

 Mr. Atlee, the teacher of an agricultural school on Lady 

 Noel Byron's property, at Ealing, reported the succeai of 

 that establishment. There were at that moment five 



hundred applicanis for admission to the farm as boarders. 



Principal McFarlan advocated education in agriculture: 

 but exhorted the meeting to carry on their improvements in 

 accordance with tiie feelings of the people, not shocking 

 their habits by rash innovations. He moved a resolution, 

 that elementary instruction should be afforded to the rural 

 population of Scotland. This was seconded by Mr. Alex- 

 ander, and carried unaniraou.^ly. 



Col. Lindsay, of Bolcarras, declared that the people of 

 Scotland must make haste, least they should be behind in 

 I he progress of improvement. 



" He must congratulate these young men from Ireland on 

 the admirable display they had made. To be a Scotsman 

 was often found a recommendation in procuring employ- 

 ment elsewhere ; but these young men from Irelahd would 

 soon show to Scotsmen that they were behind the Irish ; 

 and that, if they would maintain their high character for in- 

 dustry and intelligence, they must be instructed as they 

 were. These lads from Ireland had evinced so much agri- 

 cultural information, that, when ready for employment, they 

 had only to ask, to obtain it. He was almost ashamed to 

 admit his belief, that there was not a similar class of youths 

 in Scotland who would answer the questions as these Irish 

 lads had done." 



Farmers' Clubs. 



I WAS pleased to see a notice, in a late Farrner, 

 of the doings of a Farmers' Club in a town in 

 VVyon ing county. The writer says a student 

 from Dr. Lee's Wheatland School was lecturing 

 on Agricultural Chemistry before the Club. — 

 This is as it should be. Let a few young farm- 

 ers who have commenced learning the rudiments 

 of Agricultural Chemistry begin to explain the 

 truths, and the "hopes that is in them," and a 

 general interest is at once felt among those farm- 

 ers' sons who, up to the time being, have known 

 no higher or more intellectual amusement than 

 attending a singing school or playing pawns. 



In Fayette, in out own Seneca County, a 

 Farmers' Club has been got up, which bids fair 

 to give our Dutch friends a glimpse of what in 

 the alder deutche land is now doing to enable 

 farmers to produce great crops from a long used 

 soil. Nothing carries authority with it, to a Ger- 

 man, that is not homogeneous. Speak to him of 

 the English improvements in wheat growing, by 

 which si.xty bushels are grown on an acre, ami 

 he looks incredulous. But only name the ad- 

 vances made in his own vaj^ land, in agricultu- 

 ral science, and his hithe" dull eye glistens. 

 Speak to him the names of Mulder or Liebig, 

 and the German sound thereof is a seal to the 

 truth of your assertions. 



Much credit is due to Mr. Delafield, the 

 President of the Seneca county Agricultural So- 

 ciety — to Messrs. Foster, Jno. Johnson, Dr. 

 Oakley, and others — all of the same town, for 

 the efficient character of the Fayette Club. Dr. 

 Oakley, long a practical farmer, delivered a 

 lecture before the Club on Saturday evening last, 

 which has been described to be most interesting 

 and instructive to every farmer living on our 

 rich alluvial formations. It is said tliat several 

 young men are preparing lectures, which are to be 

 the subject of conversation and debate at the peri- 

 odical meetings of the Club. Verily the school 

 master is abroad among the farmers. S. W. 



