Agricultare is the most Healthj' and H.onol'aDle, as it is the mosi Natural cuad Useful pursuit of Man. 



VOL. XII. 



ROCHESTER, N. Y.— SEPTEMBER, 1851. 



NO. 9. 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 



We have thought it a good opportunity to call public 

 attention to the subject of Agricultural Education, by 

 making the extended and exceedingly valuable Report 

 of the Hon. Marshall P. Wilder and Prof. Hitch- 

 cock to the Legislature of Massachusetts, the basis of 

 some remarks. This document contains 105 well filled 

 ' i] pages, devoted mainly to a summary notice of seve- 

 ral hundreds of agricultural schools and colleges in 

 Europe, (many of which were visited by Prof. H.) 

 designed to teach both the arts and the sciences that 

 ll) pertain to rural affiiirs. We regard this report as a 

 h valuable contribution to the agricultural literature of 

 f> this country, and one that will serve to prevent the 

 i(!J establishment of inferior schools by State govern- 



![ ments. 

 s The Commissioners recommend the following plan 

 jjljl for an institution in Massachusetts : 



Ija " Lot an Agricultural School or College of the 

 f() superior class be established somewhere in the State, 

 possessed of all the means (teachers, book.s, appa- 

 ratus, specimens, farms, fee.,) necessary to give a 

 |r finished education in the principles and practice of 

 i',\ agriculture. Such a school should embrace the fol- 

 lowing particulars at least : 



1. A Professor of Horticulture, Sylviculture, and 

 Rural legislation, who should also be Chairman of 

 the Board of Instructors, or President of the Institu- 

 tion. 



2. A Professor of Agriculture. 



3. A Professor of Elementary and Agricultural 

 Chemistry. 



4. One of Natural History and Geology, who 

 should be curator of the collections. 



5. One of Anatomy, Physiology, Veterinary Med- 

 icine and Surgery. 



6. One of the Mathematics of Agriculture, such 

 as farm accounts, irrigation, draining, leveling, con- 

 struction of roads, bridges, Stc." 



President Hitchcock, who is the author of this 

 plan, truly remarks : "This appears to me the 

 smallest number of Professors with which an insti- 

 tution could be respectable and useful, even at its 

 commencement. The number is muchless than it is 

 at nearly all the higher agricultural seminaries in 

 Europe. There it ranges from eight to twenty.''^ 



In Europe, agriculture is esteemed as a high and 

 honorable profession, requiring for its full elucida- 



tion, a combination of talent, learning, experience, 

 and science, more than equal to that employed in 

 any other pursuit. Nor is this appreciation of the 

 numerous arts and sciences that belong to agricul- 

 ture and horticulture at all misplaced or extravagant. 

 When carefully donsidered, it amounts simply to a 

 reasonable division of labor among a number of com- 

 petent teachers — each devoting his whole time and 

 energies to a particular department, like that of geol- 

 ogy, meteorology, analytical chemistry, botany, com- 

 parative anatomy, veterinary surgery, stock breeding 

 and rearing, tillage, dairy husbandry, fruit culture, 

 agricultural mechanics, mathematics, fee. We have 

 no doubt that an institution with twelve professors 

 would be more economical in the long run than one of 

 six. It should have accommodations for GOO stu- 

 dents, and furnish every advantage of the best uni- 

 versity for the study of science. " Twenty, or even 

 ten years ago," says Prof. H., it would not iiave an- 

 swered to propose the introduction of agriculture into 

 our primary schools, or as a department in our acade- 

 mies, or a professorship in our colleges. All this it 

 may be well enough to do now, but something more 

 must be done." 



The Report throughout takes enlarged and liberal 

 views, and we are not surprised that the Legislature 

 was not prepared to adopt at once the plan recom- 

 mended ijy the Commissioners. It is to be hoped, 

 however, that Mr. Wilder and other influential 

 friends of the measure, will not abate their honora- 

 ble efforts to found the first agricultural college in 

 the Union worthy of the name. New York has had 

 the scheme of establishing an institution of this char- 

 acter under consideration thirty years. When in 

 Albany, in 1822-3, we thought the measure was 

 sure of immediate success ; but experience has prov- 

 ed that nothing is more imcertain than the progress 

 of public sentiment on the subject of agricultural sci- 

 ence. We are still indebted to European universi- 

 ties for nearly all that we know in this matter, and 

 may remain in the same humiliating condition for 

 years to come, unless the friends of rural science in 

 different States unite their strength to break the ice, 

 by founding a college in some locality through an 

 appropriation by Congress. What the country most 

 needs at this time is a national institution which 

 shall be to agricultural science what West Point 

 Academy is to military science, with a view to edu- 

 cate young gentlemen for professorships in State 

 colleges. There is now great difficulty in finding 

 men duly qualified in this country to teach the seve- 



