NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



159 



AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. 



We make the following extracts from the report 

 of the committee on agriculture in the New York 

 Assembly, to whom was referred so much of the 

 governor's message as related to agriculture, and the 

 memorial of the New York State Agricultural So- 

 ciety for the establishmeat of an agricultural school. 



The importance of the farming interest in our 

 state is manifest ; it lies at the foundation of all our 

 prosperity as a people. Wo arc, and of necessity 

 must be, an agricultural people ; and it becomes us to 

 inquire in what manner this great interest can best 

 be sustained and advanced. It is a matter of con- 

 gratulation that, through the efforts of the State 

 Agricultural Society and the coiinty societies, a very 

 apparent advance has been made, and the interest 

 in these associations is increasing yearly. The 

 Transactions of the State Society, which are annu- 

 ally published, are exciting a wide-spread influence, 

 not among our farmers only, but among all classes 

 of our citi?;ens. The two last volumes published 

 have received the approbation of the entu'e commu- 

 nity, and the demand which is made for them shows 

 how efficient they are becoming as aids to the great 

 agricultural interest of the state. In the opinion of 

 the committee, no appropriation of the legislature 

 is exciting such an extended influence for good. 



While all these facilities arc being ajDpreciated by 

 the farmer, an increasing interest has been mani- 

 fested for several years on the subject of agricultural 

 education. Not a session of the legislature has 

 passed for several years without having their atten- 

 tion directed to this subject ; and so strong has that 

 feeling become, that, his excellency the governor, 

 in his message, in obedience, as we believe, to the 

 will of the people, thus directs our attention to this 

 all important interest : " The history of this state 

 evinces that its legislature have not been content to 

 confine the exercise of its powers to the mere enact- 

 ment of laws for the administration of the ordinary 

 functions of government, or for the suppression of 

 crime ; its canals and other public works, its schools 

 and institutions of learning, are proud evidences of 

 a determination to promote the interest of its com- 

 merce and trade, and the moral improvement and 

 happiness of the people, by acts of munificent but 

 judicious legislation. We have long recognized it as 

 a high and holy duty of civilized government to pro- 

 vide for the general dissemination of learning, to 

 foster the enterprise of its people, to develop the 

 resources of the state, to encourage its industry, and 

 to secure to that industry its surest and most ample 

 rewards. Much has been done to effect these ends. 

 A noble fund has been provided, and our common 

 schools and academies arc sowing broadcast the seeds 

 of learning. The higher branches of science and the 

 arts have not been neglected. The endowments of 

 colleges and universities have generally been liberal, 

 and the rich return of these institutions, in the ad- 

 vancement of good scholarship, of profound learn- 

 ing, and of liberal and lofty science, is the surest 

 evidence of the wisdom of the past liberality of the 

 state, and the strongest incentive to its future con- 

 tinuance. I think the time has arrived when the 

 state is called upon to make provision for the ad- 

 vancement of agricultural science, and of knowl- 

 edge in the mechanic arts. Of late years, the science 

 of agriculture has received much attention, and its 

 influence, in combination with the practical labor of 

 those engaged in the ennobling pursuits of hus- 

 bandry, has lessened the toil and increased the 

 returns of the tillers of the soil. Similar influences 

 have produced similar results with respect to the 

 mechanic arts. If the wealth, and power, and inde- 

 pendence of a nation are to be estimated by its abil- 

 ity to supply from within itself its most essential 



wants, and from its abundance to minister to the 

 wants of others, it is both wise and patriotic for the 

 state to aid the advancement of those particular 

 branches of knowledge more immediately bearing 

 upon the pursuits of the great producing classes. 



" In this view I cannot too strongly recommend 

 the endowment by the state of an agricultural 

 school, and a school for instruction in the mechanic 

 arts. I would suggest aii annual appropriation, to be 

 expended under the direction of the llegents of the 

 University, for instruction in the several branches 

 of learning connected with agriculture and the me- 

 chanic arts. The appropriation should be suffi- 

 cient to secure the best talents to test the utility of 

 the plan, and if deemed expedient, its duration may 

 in the first instance be limited." 



The State Society, at their annual meeting, rep- 

 resented by delegates and others from all parts of the 

 state, unanimously united in the recommendation 

 of the governor, and we have not as yet heard the 

 first intimation that it is not in accordance with the 

 wishes of the people. 



That science is destined to contribute largely to 

 the advancement of the agricultural interest, cannot, 

 we think, be questioned. The application of mind, 

 rightly cultivated, to the subject of agriculture, 

 cannot but lead to its improvement. In every 

 branch of the operations of the farm, intelligence in 

 the farmer can be applied with the most beneficial 

 results. It cannot in truth be doubted that the 

 course of education which is pursued at our higher 

 seminaries of learning is not suited to qualify those 

 who design to engage in the ordinary pursuits of 

 life ; and it is within the experience of every well 

 informed man, that those who have come from our 

 institutions loaded with honors, have often proved 

 entirely unqualified for the common pursuits of life, 

 and have been compelled to undergo another educa- 

 tion to fit them for pursuits which require an educa- 

 tion of a practical character, and an adaptation to the 

 evcry-day business of ov.v growing country. We 

 need, then, an education Avhich will fit a man for 

 the every-day realities of life ; and to accomplish 

 this, an institution must be established for the cul- 

 tivation of those practical sciences which will enable 

 those who are to be the practical men of our country, 

 to secure an education that will not only enable them 

 rightly to discharge their duties in their profession 

 or pursuit, but will at the same time fit them to 

 occupy any station in the government of the state 

 or nation equally with those who have been educat- 

 ed for professional life at our present institutions. 



It cannot bo doubted that many of the arts and 

 sciences of the present da}% which are claiming 

 the attention of every well informed man, are the 

 creation of our OM'n times, and are not to be found 

 in the systems of education established in by-gone 

 ages, and which in the main remain now as they 

 were established centuries ago. Chemistry, miner- 

 alogy, geology, botany, electricity, are almost all of 

 our own time ; at least they are within the recollec- 

 tion of our old men, many of whom can point to the 

 day of. their birth. Their importance, however, is 

 beginning to be felt, and no man can be said to be 

 thoroughly prepared to grapple with the require- 

 ments of this advancing age, unless practically ac- 

 quainted with acquirements of modern date. All 

 of these acquirements can bo applied with most 

 gratifying results to agriculture ; and its advance- 

 ment is to depend, in our judgment, upon facilities 

 being afforded to attain that information which now 

 is not to be attained by the great mass of the people. 

 An institution Avhich should have for its object the 

 teaching of thcte and kindred branches connected 

 with practical agriculture, is, in our opinion, demand- 

 ed both by the Avants and the desires of that all- 

 important portion of our citizens, the agricultural 

 and mechanical classes. 



