S8 AGBICULTUKE ON THE RHIKE. 



Amongst the injunctions he receives upon assuming 

 office, the duty of encouraging improved processes of 

 agriculture is enforced, in which, however, his influence 

 goes no further than making trials of what is recommended 

 by authors or occasionally by the government. Thus 

 the schoolmasters in many parts have made trials in the 

 breeding of silk-worms, which the German governments 

 have very much recommended, and which has been 

 sufficiently shown to be practicable. It will be long 

 before a country struggling with the difficulty of raising 

 food will show a general disposition to produce an article 

 of luxury, like silk, on an extensive scale. In this as in 

 many other points experience is a more influential teacher 

 than the schoolmaster. Yet the time may come when his 

 task may be extended to the inculcation of simple and 

 convincing views of industry, and of sounder and more 

 sociable doctrines than our narrow-minded age has 

 hitherto professed. Then will it be evident how much 

 a nation gains by having a ready sower to distribute the 

 good seed, and by the previous pains taken to prepare the 

 ground that is to receive it. 



