546 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



science, has thrown explanation. Chemistry as applied to this 

 art is a collection of facts and explanation, which are them- 

 selves only additional facts, relating the best methods of se- 

 curing the greatest quantity of the most perfect products from 

 grounds of a certain quantity and quality, and it is nothing 

 after all, but an increase of that very kind of knowledge, with- 

 out which a farmer could not perform a single operation in the 

 line of his employment. Is any man frightened at this ? then 

 let him take his place among the astrologers and star-gazers, 

 and regulate his tillage by the almanac and the moon. 



I have thus mentioned some of the obstacles which have 

 impeded agricultural progress, and the list might be enlarged. 

 I proceed to notice one of the modes in which improvement in 

 agriculture can be promoted. 



This is by agricultural schools, taught by men versed in all 

 sciences connected with the cultivation of the soil, and to which 

 lands are attached for the purpose of experimental and practical 

 farming. The attention which this subject can receive in the 

 common school must be of quite an elementary and general 

 character. Whilst the knowledge gained in this way is useful 

 as far as it goes, it does not meet the present demand. The 

 common school is already so crowded with studies which are 

 thought to be indispensably important branches of education, 

 that there is a strong tendency to want of thoroughness to, and 

 superficiality in the manner of teaching, those which are of the 

 first necessity and lie at the foundation of all knowledge and 

 mental discipline. Besides, among the thousands of teachers 

 who resort to school keeping, as a mere temporary employment 

 in the younger period of life, with minds comparatively imma- 

 ture and unfurnished, and upon whom our common schools 

 must depend for an indefinite period, how many are qualified 

 to teach any more than the mere rudimental and general parts 

 of the science, from meagre text books, prepared for the pur- 

 pose, without the aids of experiment and practice which will 

 be furnished by the proposed schools, and are of such vast im- 

 portance, to complete the preparation of those who are destined 

 to the employment of husbandry ? The system of common 

 schools must undergo a complete revolution, and become very 



