324 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



best modes of practice which these principles incul- 

 cate, and which experience has proved to be sound. 



We have professional schools in almost every 

 business of life, except in the cultivation of the soil, 

 one of the most important and essential of them all, 

 and one embracing a larger scope of useful study in 

 natural science, and in usefulness to the temporal 

 wants of the human family, than any other. The 

 policy of monarchs and of privileged orders has 

 been to repress intelligence in the agricultural mass, 

 in order to keep them in a subordinate station. But 

 neither the policy nor the practice should be counte- 

 nanced by us. Our agriculturists are our privileged 

 class, if we have such. They are our sovereigns, 

 because, from their superior numbers, they must 

 ever control our political destinies for good or for 

 evil. And the more intelligent and independent we 

 can render them, the more safe we make our coun- 

 try from the convulsions of internal feuds and the 

 dangers of foreign war. 



I put the question to fathers : Would you esteem 

 that son less, or think him less likely to fulfil the 

 great duties of life, who had been educated in a pro- 

 fessional school of agriculture, with all the high 

 qualifications which it would confer for public and 

 domestic usefulness, than him who had been educa- 

 ted for the counter, the bar, or other high profession- 

 al callings ] On which could you best rely for sup- 

 port and comfort in the decline of life ? Nay, I will 

 venture to carry the appeal farther ; to the discrim- 

 inating judgment of the unmarried lady : Would you 

 reject, as a partner for life, the student of such a 

 college, coming forth with a sound mind, deeply im- 

 bued with useful knowledge, and a hale constitution 

 invigorated by manly exercise, whose cares and af- 

 fections were likely to be concentrated upon home 

 and country, and whose precepts and examples would 

 tend to diffuse industry, prosperity, and rural happi- 

 ness around him? The father's response would, I 

 think, he ;in unhc^itiiting no to the first question; 



