56 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



importance of practical education has been lost sight of before 

 the more powerful temptations of scientific exploration and of 

 captivating theories. Practical schools have been useful ; none 

 others have. And so strongly am I impressed by this fact, that 

 I venture to quote the following extract from a report of a com- 

 mittee of the New York legislature, as early as 1822, upon this 

 matter. In alluding to the advantages which are likely to grow 

 out of the establishment of an agricultural school, they refer to 

 the benefit which agriculture itself is to derive, and say : — 



" This school will collect the best systems and most recent 

 improvements in husbandry from Europe and America ; adapt 

 them to our climate, our soils, our productions, our wants ; 

 demonstrate their utility in practice, and disseminate a knowl- 

 edge of them in every part of the State. The Hofwyl farm (at 

 that time the celebrated school of M. de Fellenberg, in Switzer- 

 land,) will serve to illustrate the extent of these advantages. 

 Mr. Brougham visited this in 1816 and inquired minutely 

 into its details. Two years afterwards he spoke in high com- 

 mendation of it in a report which he made to the British 

 parliament on the subject of education. The whole estab- 

 lishment, he says, comprises but 211 acres ; and the average 

 annual profit of the pattern farm alone, for a period of four 

 years, he found to be X8o6 sterling, or about $1,000, exclusive 

 of the cattle concern, which was kept separate. We have 

 numerous statements demonstrating the superiority of the new 

 over the old system of husbandry, two or three of which shall 

 be noticed in the abstract. The first comparison is made on 

 a mixed, or grazing, breeding, and tillage farm of 314 acres, 

 in York. Under the old system the net profits amounted to 

 X318 IO5., and under the new system the same yielded a net 

 profit of .£595, making a difference of ^278, or 100 per cent, 

 in favor of the new system of husbandry. The second one is 

 that of a tillage farm of 139 acres in Lincolnshire. Under 

 the old system tlie profits were X130, under the new £452 ; 

 difference in favor of the latter X322, or 250 per cent. A third 

 statement exhibits the profits of an acre of land, being a medium 

 of several hundred acres in Yorkshire, for six years. Under 

 the old system the profit was XI 9s. M., under the new X17 

 Qs. dd. ; an increased gain of more than 1,100 per cent, in favor 



