1851. 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



275 



make a good sized volume printed by itself, and we 

 trust it will soon appear in a form to give it a much 

 more extended circulation than it can receive as a 

 part of the annual proceedings of the Society under 

 whose auspices it has reached the public. 



Our impression is that these "Transactions" 

 migiu be somewhat more condensed with advantage, 

 with a view to induce the Legislature to print a lar- 

 ger number of copies for the same money. We go 

 for scattering the good seed with a liberal hand, 

 broa.icast over the whule State, and a little beyond. 

 i) Ko other Commonwealth in the Union draws so many 

 1> dollars into its treasury from other States, as New 

 York, through its Eric Canal ; while our great com- 

 mercial metropolis, and score of smaller cities, enjoy 

 in an emin(mt degree the ricii trade and patronage of 

 the cultivators of the soil througiiout the Republic. 

 New York ought to do far more than she does fur 

 the promotion of agriculture ; and if her active busi- 

 ness men saw how much science and art can do to 

 augment the fruitfulness of the earth, and the profits 

 of trade and commerce, there would be no holding- 

 back of means required to diifuse agricultural knowl- 

 edge among all the cultivators of the soil. 



Volume X contains 729 pages, is handsomely 

 illustrated, and retlects credit on all concerned in its 

 production. 



A TJNITER3ITY FOR THE PTiOFESSIOBTAL EDUCA- 

 TION OF FARMERS i :iD MECHANICS. 



In the years 1817, 1818, and 1819, when County Ag- 

 ricultural Societies were f st established in New- 

 York, the writer was serving his apprenticeship in 

 the town of Warren, Herkimer county, in this State, 

 with one of the best practical farmers within its lim- 

 its, in learning a profession whi'ch is still loved and 

 cherished above all others. At that early day we 

 desired above all things to attend an Agricultural 

 College ; and before being i'airly engaged in the study 

 of the healing art, wc visited Albany when the Leg- 

 islature was in session, to see what chance there was 

 for the establishment of an institution for the profes- 

 sional education of young farmers. The law-makers 

 of that era were unsophisticated, and talked out plain 

 English after this fashion : " Young man, if you are 

 willing to become one of the thousands of supernu- 

 merary physicians of the country, we proffer for 

 your encouragement three good medical schools, with 

 their anatomical museums, dissecting rooms, chemi- 

 cal laboratories, libraries, and six or eight learned 

 and able professors in each institution : but if you 

 seek equal scientific attainments in connection with 

 tillage and husbandry, (the business of your father,) 

 we will not render you the least assistance whatever." 

 This language vv'as not to be misunderstood ; and to 

 our knowledge it has been substantially repeated to 

 every youth seeking a respectable agricultural educa- 

 tion in this great State during the last third of a cen- 

 tury. We have witnessed the endowment of several 

 new medical colleges, and the refusal to give the first 

 dollar to aid in the establishment of an agricultural 

 school. This cruel injustice has been so long and so 

 unflinchingly practiced by ignorant farmers and more 

 ign')rant lawyers, who have controlled the legislation 

 of the State. If New York were poor and unable to 

 help those noble youths who are willing to eat the 

 bread of honest manual labor, to some knowledge of 

 the natural sciences, in tiiat practical, common sense 

 way which will meet their means and their wants, 



we should never have uttered a word of complaint. 

 But New York, with her incomparable Erie canal, 

 her rich land.s. her score, of cities, and her most in- 

 dustrious population of three millions, has unmeas- 

 ured resources for the increase of agricultural and 

 mechanical science. Why, then, attempt to extin- 

 guish forever the light of this invaluable science ] 

 It has wronged no human being ; it asks only an 

 equal chance with medical science as supported at 

 the public expense, in the cities of New York, Alba- 

 ny, and Buffalo. 'We have never objected to the- 

 professional education of doctors, lawyers, and_ mili- 

 tary officers, at institutions adapted specially to the 

 purpose. So far from that, we claim that this prac- 

 tice is founded in sound public policy, and that our 

 industrial professions equally deserve the aid of sci- 

 ence and special institutions, where the young farmer 

 can dissect all the animals which he is expected to 

 breed and rear, and thereby learn the form and func- 

 tion of every organ, whether it digests food, elaborates 

 milk, fat, flesh, bone, or wool. The improvement of 

 domestic animals is a great desideratum, and involves 

 much anatomical and physiological research. So 

 long as hundreds of young stock-growers and dairy- 

 men earnestly seek to extend their professional knowl- 

 edge in this direction, to benefit themselves and the 

 community at large, it is both mean and disgraceful 

 in the Legislature to deny them the benefit of one 

 agricultural school in a State that contains a half 

 million of farmers. 



Young friends, send in your petitions early, and 

 write often to your representatives on this subject. 

 Let them know that you are in earnest in the m.at'.er. 



Millard Fillmore once carded wool and fulled 

 cloth as an honest apprentice should. Suppose he 

 had stuck to his trade to this time ? V/hat chance 

 would he then have had of being now President of 

 the United States ? We tell you frankly, that any 

 system of education which compels an ambitious 

 youth to leave the shop of the mechanic and the fields 

 of the fartner to graduate in a lawyers oflice, before 

 ii& can rise under our republican form of government, 

 is radically defective. Professional men now enjoy 

 an amount of intellectual trainiiig and discipline 

 which are invaluable to them, but denied to practical 

 farmers and mechanics. If our reasoning faculties 

 be not fully developed, it is the decree of a good 

 Providence that we shall be forever looking vj) to 

 men who are looking down upon us. 



EXTRACTS FROM ENGLISH PAPERS. 



THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 

 O.v Friday the rficripts at ilie dooiv anioiinteti to £3, 415 1.5^., 

 llie number of visitors being ■i3,.6!i4. The teinperature in 

 ilie interior of the building was cool and pleasant throughout 

 the day, the mean being, according to licnneti's tiiertnome- 

 ters, 54.4. This, nonibined vviili the partial excb:sivenes.s 

 .secured by h.df-erovvn admissions, enabled ail who came to 

 .see to advantage tlie different objects of interest which they 

 were desirous of inspecting. 



In another i'orlnijht the (Jreat Exhihiiion closes, tlie Crys- 

 tal Palace will have fulfilled its purpose, the tide ()fcal)Rnd 

 oninibusscs will cease to flow towards Kensington, and those 

 vast assemblages of spectators which for months )iast have 

 made pilgrimages from every corner of tiie globe to the 

 shrine ofindustry. will be deprived of the centre around which 

 their curiosity attracted them. When that event happens, 

 the grandeur of the demonstration wliich has taken place in 

 fivoroftlio peaceful arts, will be more distincdy apprecia- 

 ted, and the results, benelicial or otherwise, wliich the dis- 

 play leaves behind it, will be calmly ascertained and realized. 

 In the meantime it behooves all who can alTord it, not to lose 

 the few remaining days of opportunity for the survey of an 



Is 

 it 



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