No. 216.] 505 



been petitioned on the subject: two committee reports have been 

 made — one in favor of the project — the other against it. Is the 

 State of New York to possess the establishment proposed? The 

 general government has planted on her soil a school where the 

 art of destroying human life is superbly taught. Will the State of 

 New- York emulate the energy of the general government in a more 

 noble cause, and found a school devi t =^ lo the science of the pres- 

 ervation of human existence? 



If the positions which your speaker has advanced are true; if sci- 

 ence is necessary to the development of the farm and the enoblement 

 of the farmer's character ; if the farmer, to do his work well, must 

 know the laws of matter, then this school and farm will be richly 

 endowed by the state government, ably professored, and perma- 

 nently established. For the knowledge required by those " who com- 

 pose four-fifths of our people, and whose business sustains all other 

 occupations," would be best taught in an establishment devoted theo- 

 retically, practically, and solely to those branches of human learning 

 which the agriculturist requires. Should the farmer understand sur- 

 veying? He should; it will be taught. Does he need a knowledge 

 of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, chemistry, geology, mineralogy, 

 grafting, budding, manuring, and the history of agriculture? He 

 does. They will also be taught. Do not occasions often arise when 

 the agriculturist himself must make and repair his implem.ents? Then, 

 in this school will be taught all tho^ principles in mechanics w^hich 

 the farmer's exigencies may demand. 



Animal pathology and veterinary medicine should also be taught ; 

 there are hundreds of thousands of farmers who daily suffer great 

 loss, and undergo much vexation, owing to an ignorance of the con- 

 stitutions of domestic animals, and a diagnosis of their diseases. 



I cannot more ably continue the list of those things which should 

 demand attention in this school, than by quoting from Mr. Burchard's 

 legislative report. It says, in the agricultural department proper, the 

 general principles of farming and horticulture, including the cultiva- 

 tion of the vine, the breeding of cattle, the growing of wool, the 

 raising of horses, the production of silk-worms, the tillatre of all 

 cereal, culinary, coloring and esculent plants that vegetate in the 

 northern latitude; the arrangement and superintendence of farms, their 

 situation, and book-keeping, should have their appropriate place in 

 the general plan of education. 



