DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND ALL ITS VARIOUS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



Honor waits, o'er all the earth, The art that calls her harvests forth.— Bryant. 



VOL. I. 



SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 1849, 



NO. 10. 



S. W. COLE, Editor. 



QUINCY HALL, BOSTOX. 



J. NOUIISE, Propmetor. 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 



O.v the L3th, the last agricultural meeting was 

 held at the State House. Hon. M. P. Wilder in the 

 chair. Subject, Agricultural Education. 



The president said, that the subject was of vital 

 iuiportance to the whole community, for on the 

 success of the farmer the prosperity of all other pro- 

 fessions must depend. The science of agriculture 

 should be jilaced on a par with every other depart- 

 ment of art and education. He alluded to the move- 

 ment in the legislature of New York on this subject. 



Hon. Mr. Calhoun remarked that the common- 

 wealth of Massachusetts had liberally sustained 

 schools, academies, and colleges, which were an honor 

 to her, and a commendable spirit was now aroused on 

 agricultural education, and this spirit may be relied 

 upon in sustaining the cause of agricultural educa- 

 tion. There is less diificulty in this than in other 

 braiTches of education, now in successful operation 

 in our state. We have schools for the instruction 

 of the blind and the deaf, and establishments for 

 improving the condition of idiots and lunatics. As 

 farmers now enter upon their business without suit- 

 able instruction, a great deal of time is lost, and 

 much is learned wrong by hasty observation. But 

 if a right start is taken, they will not be subjected to 

 a thousand experiments in order to learn what should 

 be imparted by a good education. There is no calling 

 in which science may be so successfully emisloyed as 

 in agriculture. Sir Hum.phry Davy wrote on agri- 

 cultural chemistry fifty years ago, and he has been 

 followed by Licbeg and others of eminence, and 

 much scientific knowledge had been disseminated in 

 Europe, and there is no reason why we shotdd not 

 avail ourselves of the same advantages. In England 

 and Germany agricultural schools are in successful 

 o,5cration, and their utilitj' is acknowledged. As the 

 young farmer turns up the sod, he knows not the 

 elements that compose it, nor the manures it requires, 

 nor to what crops it is adapted. A little accurate 

 knowledge would be of great service to him. In our 

 schools and seminaries of learning Ave get an educa- 

 tion that fits us for every calling excepting that of 

 the farmer. The subject has been before the legis- 



lature, but they have done nothing in furnishing 

 means as in the establishing other schools. 



Hon. Mr. French, of Braintrec, thought that the 

 community were becoming alive to this subject, and 

 there could be no question that there was a great 

 want of accurate information, which otir schools and 

 colleges do not supplj', as agricultural education docs 

 not enter into our systems of instruction. Wc 

 should have agricultural schools where a young man 

 may work on a good constitution and fit himseK 

 for pursuing his profession with pleasure and suc- 

 cess. If a school was established, it would soon 

 be furnished with a large ntimber of students. At 

 present, the great error at our seminaries of learning 

 is, that students study too hard, and take too little ex- 

 ercise. In an agricultural school, exercise and study 

 v.-ould bo combined, imparting instruction and health. 



Hon. Mr. Leonard, of the Senate, believed that an 

 agricultural school would be a benefit to the com- 

 monwealth. He referred to the aid that agriculture 

 had alreadj' received by means of the sciences. 



Mr. Teschemacher, of Boston, believed that there 

 was already too miich education for the learned pro- 

 fessions, and he was opposed to any more facilities 

 for this purpose, until provision was made to educate 

 the farmer to ctiltivate the soil from which he must 

 get his livelihood, and learn its peculiar elements, 

 and its adaptation to particular crops. He was op- 

 posed to doing any thing m.ore for colleges until 

 agriculture was represented in them. In England 

 there is a great difterence in the products of an acre 

 of land, and mutton, butter, and other jiroductions 

 sell at very different prices. This is not the result 

 of chance, but the application of greater skill in the 

 production of crops. Every yotith, who would get 

 accurate knowledge of agriculture, should be fur- 

 nished with advantages for this j)uri50se. 



Dr. Wilder, of Leominster, thought that every one 

 could do something to give importance to agriculture, 

 and impressing it early on the minds of children. 

 Teachers and pcrcnts may do much by instructing 

 children in the rudiments of agrieidturo, and thus 

 lay a foundation for agricultural schools, where their 

 education may be completed. 



Deacon Grant, of I'^oston, had Icr.rncd to estinnt'" 



