No- 144.] 269 



farmers. Even for the preparation of teachers their use is doubt- 

 ed, and many, if not all, prefer those who have pursued agricul- 

 ture practically, and who, in addition, have received such an edu- 

 cation as includes a knowledge of the adjunct sciences. The pure 

 chemist and the pure farmers are alike unqualified for such 

 duties, while the few who may be found in every community, 

 who, from peculiarities of tastes, have rendered themselves mas- 

 ters, to a suflficient degree, of all the sciences connected with 

 agriculture, and have applied them practically, are, at least, able 

 to meet the requirements of teachers, and to suit themselves to 

 the current events of the community. Among such, then, we 

 must look for teachers, and their services must be availed of in 

 every way practicable. Such men should be employed to lecture 

 in agricultural districts — such men should write books on the 

 elements of agriculture for the use of common schools, and thus 

 render scientific agriculture as part of the common school edu- 

 cation. 



We are far from objecting to the usefulness of colleges for ge- 

 neral education, but their benefits cannot be made to reach the 

 great mass of farmers; the remedy must be applied where it will 

 meet with a wider dissemination. As an example, the use of the 

 Bible and other modes of religious instruction in common schools 

 has, at least, rendered the whole community capable of under- 

 standing the different religious sentiments of the day, to an ex- 

 tent much greater than the general know^ledge on political econo- 

 my and many other subjects not so treated, and still the time oc- 

 cupied in religious instructions in common schools is not great. 

 Suppose that agriculture should be taught in the same way, and 

 that a small portion of every boy's time should be devoted to 

 such study, would not the truths of agriculture, like those of re- 

 ligion, become the common property of all 1 Would not books 

 be written of an elementary character, on chemistry as applied 

 to agriculture, on geology as applied to agriculture, and, indeed, 

 on all the sciences as applied to agriculture 1 Why not permit 

 the small amount of chemistry, natural philosophy and natural 

 history, usually taught in common schools, to be so arranged as 

 to teach them in their connection with agriculture, and thus, by 

 useful anecdote and application, fasten the facts they contain on 



