No. 4.] AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 351 



1. First, such schools woukl furnish to all classes of the 

 community, an opportunity to acquire a definite knowledge of 

 all the known principles by which agricultural pursuits should 

 be conducted. These principles are the Joint results of all the 

 experience men have ever had in husbandry, and of all the 

 deductions they have made from the sciences on this sub- 

 ject. . . . 



2. In such schools our youth would find an excellent oppor- 

 tunity of learning the best method of conducting the practical 

 operations of the farm ; in other words, of seeing theory reduced 

 to practice. . . . 



3. These schools would form centres of information on the 

 subject of agriculture, and from them our farmers could derive 

 important aid. . . . 



4. These schools would be the best places for testing the 

 value of supposed improvements in agriculture. . . . 



5. They ought to be places for making improvements in 

 agriculture. . . . 



6. Finally, to sum up the whole in one word, the grand 

 object of these schools is to improve the husbandry of Massa- 

 chusetts. . . . 



But what shall be the character of the Agricultural Schools, 

 should any be established in Massachusetts ? 



This difficult inquiry I would meet by a few suggestions. 

 . . . Twenty, or even ten years ago, it might have answered 

 to propose the introduction of agriculture into our primary 

 schools, or as a department in our academies, or a professor- 

 ship in our colleges. All this it may be well enough to do 

 now, but something more must be done. So Europeans Judge, 

 and accordingly, as we have seen, they have started institutions 

 with as ample a foundation, and as numerous a body of in- 

 structors, as we find in most of our American colleges. Noth- 

 ing short of this, as it seems to me, will be sufficient for our 

 country; nay, I fancy that at least one such superior institu- 

 tion is needed in each of our states. The work to be done is 

 too great, the number of teachers is too many, and the amount 

 of various collections too large, to attempt to attach an agri- 

 cultural school to some other institution, and that too as only 

 a subordinate branch. . . . 



