234 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 



Much has been said, and more, perhaps, written, of 

 late, upon the subject of an agricultural school. 

 But, as yet, we have seen no plan proposed, which, to 

 our mind, meets the wants of the public. 



An agricultural school does not convoy an idea 

 of what we want ; nor does an agricultural college 

 convey any more definitely the true object to be 

 gained. 



It is conceded that our colleges and universities, 

 so far. as being of any practical use to the farmer or 

 the mechanic, in the education of his son, are a total 

 failure. The whole system is the relic of that age 

 when education was only for the rich and noble of 

 an older country. Men, in those days, were educated 

 to be gentlemen ; manual labor was a mark of ser- 

 vitude, and, as such, held to be without the pale of 

 gentility. Those who followed it would not be tol- 

 erated among those higher and refined classes. The 

 collegian rarely went from the plough or workshop, 

 and more rarely went back to them. Colleges have 

 been, and are now, the seminaries for edu.cating men 

 for professions ; and as such they are probably well 

 fitted to do their duty. In this state, they have been 

 largely, in some instances prodigalh', endowed. 



It is, however, a lamentable fact, that there is not 

 an institution in the Union, where a student can re- 

 ceive a thoroughly practical education — one that 

 will prepare him for filling the duties of an American 

 citizen, if taken from the farm or the workshop. The 

 Military Academy at West Point is eminently prac- 

 tical, but it is only intended to teach the science of 

 •war, with all its kindred branches. It will make 

 good soldiers or engineers ; but it will not make 

 good farmers or mechanics, though it is certain that 

 a graduate there would be far better prepared for 

 either than a graduate from any coUege in the 

 Union. 



We want, then, an institution that will be to the 

 farmer and mechanic what West Point is to the 

 soldier. While it fits him for the proper and under- 

 standing discharge of his duties as a citizen, it should 

 also jirepare him for the particular branch of busi- 

 ness he is to follow through life. We would not edu- 

 cate him as fanner or mechanic, but we would so 

 educate him that he could be either, and he could be 

 80 too undcrstandingly. 



We are glad to see among the commission who 

 haA'C this subject in charge, some of enlarged views 

 and practical knowledge, and have hopes they will 

 be able to report a system perfect in its detail. Eut 

 still we much doubt whether the public is fully 

 prepared to go into the subject with that liberality 

 which will insure it comijlete success. To carry out 

 any plan that would at all bo worthy of the cause, 

 would require a permanent investment of at least a 

 half a million of dollars — an inconsiderable sum, 

 when compared with the millions which have been 

 sunk and lost by improvident legislation ; but still 

 we fear that there may be men found who would not 

 be willing to go into this most important movement 

 with becoming spirit. We shall hope for the best, 

 and again recur to the subj ect. — Wool- Groiver. 



Remarks by Editor N. E. Farmer. — We are 

 pleased with the independent tone and good sense 

 ■which Mr. Peters has exhibited in the preceding 

 article. While the subject of agricultural schools is 

 under consideration by the legislatures of different 

 states, we hope that practical men will speak out 

 their sentiments, that when schools are established 

 they may be placed under the management of men 

 who are distinguished for their general intelligence, 

 economy, and practical knowledge. 



If agricultural schools are to be managed by men 

 who spend money in farming, then the student will 

 learn to regard taste and fancy, and get into habits 

 of extravagance, so that he wiU need a competency 

 to enable him to farm, and that he would soon spend, 

 instead of accumulating property and gaining a com- 

 petency. Industry and strict economy are necessary 

 to success in farming, and these habits must be ac- 

 quired by experience. 



POWER OF INSECTS. 



We find in Chambers's Journal an article on the 

 " Importance of the Significant," which treats, among 

 other things, of the destructive power of insects. 

 The writer saj's — 



When countries have been shaved of their increase, 

 whole Icings and councils have been pei-plcxed, and 

 whole nations have trembled at the sound of an in- 

 sect's wing, we are justified in giving their deeds a 

 record in this place, and on this occasion. Let him 

 who can count the leaves of the thickest forest, de- 

 spise, if he can, the powers of that legion of cater- 

 pillars of which lleaumur speaks as having brought 

 a premature winter upon a dense wood in France 

 which he visited. Every tree was overrun with 

 them ; and in a brief time, from the refreshing green 

 of spring, the whole scene assumed the parched, 

 brown aspect of autumn. Such was the alarm excit- 

 ed, that an act of government was called forth, de- 

 creeing that every body should assist in the extermi- 

 nation of the insects. But they were not to be anni- 

 hilated by "acts of parliament;" cold and rain 

 killed them. The Hessian fly, supposed to be carried 

 by the far less formidable Hessian troops from Ger- 

 many, committed, for a length of time, the most 

 awful ravages in North America. At one period it 

 was thought they would annihilate the culture of 

 wheat altogether. They came in enormous numbers, 

 thickening the very air, crossing lakes and rivers like 

 a cloud. In a tumbler of beer, five hundred met 

 with death by drowning ! The privy council, we 

 arc told, met day by daj' to consult what measures 

 could be adopted to destroy these ravagcrs. Ex- 

 presses were despatched to France, Austria, Prussia, 

 and America for full information ; and the minutes 

 of the council and the necessary documents fill up- 

 wards of two hundred pages. AH this is about an 

 insignificant fly ! 



The weevils, likewise, have an evil name for their 

 destroying powers. Every voyager knows them, and 

 has watched their manoeuvres in his biscuits, or has 

 been on the point of swallowing them in his soup. 

 A great brewer used to say that he collected them 

 out of his granaries by bushels ; which cannot be 

 wondered at, when we remember that a single pair 

 will, in the course of a year, bc^-ome surrounded 

 with a family of six thousand. Our grapes are of- 

 ten cut down for us, and withered before their time, 

 by the larvae of other insects. In the course of the 

 last century, they multiplied so excessively in Sweden, 

 that numbers of the meadows became white and dry, 

 as if scorched. The larva? of our childhood's friend, 

 " Daddy-long-legs," some years ago, entirely de- 

 stroyed hundreds of acres of the richest pasture-land, 

 all becoming dry and dead. A inece of turf, a square 

 foot in size, when examined, contained the enor- 

 mous number of two hundred and ten grubs. 



After all, what are these to locusts, that oppressive 

 scourge with which Providence occasionally visits 

 nations ? To quote a single instance : In Russia, 

 in 1650, they came at three points in vast multitudes ; 

 they darkened the very air, covered the earth, and in 

 some places their dead bodies formed a stratunrfour 

 inches deep ; the trees literally bent under them, and 



