AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



■ PUBLIStimTl^^ JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO 53 NORTH MARKET STREET, (AaR.cuLTauAL Wa. 



VOL. xvni.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 1, 1838. 



[NO. 4. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 

 AN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 



FOR THE SONS OP LANDED PROPRIETORS. 



[Our attention of late has been frequently called 

 to the importance of the establishment of an Agri- 

 cultural School for the education of farmers. We 

 have had a number of applications from gentlemen 

 ivishincr to obtain places for their sons, who having 

 finished their collegiate course of studies, desire a 

 situation where they may obtain a practical and 

 scientific knowledge of farmin-. We find an arti- 

 cle in the quaiiciiij Journal of Agriculture which 

 we recommend to the notice o^ our readers ; it con- 

 tains some suggestions respecting the importance 

 of "an agricultural education for the sons of landed 

 proprietors " which although it may not be exactly 

 suited to our country, yet contains some hints of 

 importance. Will not some of our able correspon- 

 dents take the subjectinto serious consideration and 

 give us their views upon the expediency of an es- 

 tablishment of this kind for the benefit of tlie farm- 

 ing interest. ■'• "•' 



The ordinary education of the landed proprietors 

 of this country is as complete as it can be eg"ected 

 by private tutelage and at public schools and uni- 

 versities. Accomplished in classical learning, lit- 

 erature, or the physical sciences, as eacli depart- 

 ment of study may suit particular tastes, not a few 

 of tliem have enhanced the literary and scientific 

 character of the country, and some have even con- 

 ferred lustre on it in the learned professions of 

 medicine, law, or theology ; and not to be outdone 

 in the race of honorable distinction by their English 

 compeers, many have participated in the academic 

 honors of Oxford and Cambridge. Yet, strange to 

 remark, anxious as landed proprietors certainly are 

 to bestow a liberal education on their families, 

 which is the best legacy they can leave to their 

 younger sons, agriculture, which most materially 

 aftects tlie interests of tliemselves and their eldest 

 sons, tlie very profession by which they are upheld 

 in the high status of society they occupy, tliey al- 

 most entirely neglect, as if, after the acquirement 

 of a superior education, a man should be ashamed 

 of attending to the means of his subsistence. Is it 

 not "passing strange," that any country gentleman 

 should be unacquainted with farming, the very 

 source of his livelihood, when all other classes of 

 people, in learning their respective professions, 

 whether learned or vulgar, serve apprenticesliips 

 and toil through life thereafter ? It seems to be 

 forffotten that landownership is a profession, that it 

 is in the manner in which it is conducted, that the 

 best interests of the country may be injured or pro 

 moted, and that it is a profession which requires 

 as o-reat capacity of mind to practice it aright as to 

 conduct those large commercial and manufacturing 

 establisliments, whose importance is so much laud- 

 ed. The comparison between them can in truth 

 be pursued no farther ; for, whilst commercialists 

 conduct their business jn person assiduously, land- 



owners consign the guidance of their valuable es- 

 tates to persons who, in too many instances, are 

 ignorant of agriculture, and who, at any rate, can- 

 not feel t!ie same interest in their prosperity as the 

 proprietors themselves. This allegation is made 

 against landowners generally, though not indiscrim- 

 inately sweeping ; for we have the satisfaction of 

 personally knowing landowners, members of the 

 nobility as well as the gentry, who have made it a 

 duty to acquire a knowledge of agriculture, and 

 who, in consequence, manage their estates of them- 

 selves, or through competent factors, on the princi- 

 ples of the most approved practice. Those pro- 

 prietors who entrust their estates to factors of 

 known practical ability, adopt the best safeguard 

 against the evils arising from their own want of 

 knowledge. 



There are many evils attending the neglect of 

 farming by land owners. When called upon to 

 take a'share in the discussions or business of those 

 interesting agricultural meetings which of late 

 years have excited so much notice over the king- 

 dom, the remarks or speeches of the land owners 

 consist, with few exceptions, of apologies for not 

 having attended sulficiently to agricultural subjects, 

 and of excuses for want of practical knowledge ; 

 and, when it is their lot or ambition to become 

 meinbers of the legislature, how lamentable it is to 

 find that, beyond every other class of representi- 

 tives in Parliament, the landed interest know the 

 least of what concerns themselves. They should 

 know much more upon every subject connected 

 with agriculture as an art, as being the most inSu- 

 ential Interest in the state, or the laws affecting the 

 different branches of it, than mere tenants, whose 

 education and means of observation must be com- 

 paratively limited. Yet the tenantry are frequently 

 left to fight their own battles on ])ablic questions. 



A greater evil exists in consigning the manage- 

 ment of their valuable estates to the care of men 

 who have perhaps acquired an intimacy with the 

 quill, and the blandishments of their own tables, 

 but who have neglected the guidance of the plough, 

 and the unwearying attention required at the fced- 

 iug-in board. Want of knowledge in proprietors 

 may o^jly personally affect themselves, but the ap- 

 pointment of incompetent factors cannot fail to af- 

 fect the fortunes and happiness of numerous fami- 

 lies. The nature of the legal profession, in which 

 too many factors are brought up, predisposes their 

 minds to carping at quibbles am "utigiousness ; 

 which, whenever a farmer discovers, or thinks he 

 discovers, in the factor, he withdraws his confidence 

 from him, and places liimself in a position of self- 

 defence. Both are ever atler prepared for disputi- 

 tion, and disputes inevitably ensue. And how can 

 any other result be anticipated ? How can a for- 

 mer hold " sweet converse " with a man who can- 

 not understand his discourse, and it is only 8S a 

 farmer that a tenant has occasion to converse with 

 the factor at all ? In these circumstances, when 

 disputes do arise between the factor and the ten- 

 ants, the proprietor, who is unwilling, or what is 

 worse, and more likely to be the case, unable to 



interfere, leaves their settlement to him who com- 

 menced them ; and who, to gain his point over tlie 

 tenant, persuades his master, by flattering his pre- 

 judices, to refrain from interference ; and, in the 

 end, contrives to place the proprietor in the most 

 disagreeable position with his tenants. The prob- 

 able result of this cunning policy is the degrada- 

 tion of the proprietor into a scape-goat for the sins 

 of the factor. Or, stopping short of actual litiga- 

 tion, the factor may refer the settlement of the dis- 

 pute to expensive arbitration. In either case, the 

 weaker party, the tenants, are sure to be most in- 

 jured, and, it may be, eventually ruined. The pro- 

 prietor, instead of being the natural protector of 

 his tenants, is thus converted into their opprersos. 



By this train of argument, we do not maintain 

 that factors should be ignorant of law, of business, 

 or any other species of knowledge ; but what we 

 assert is, tiiat they should be thoroughly versant in 

 ao-riculture. Without that essential knowledge, 

 w'e would not entrust a factor with the manage- 

 ment of an estate, although he possessed the most 

 amiable disi^osition. That linowledge, and no other 

 imparts the' faculty of looking at all agricultural 

 matters in the right light. By it he will know 

 what covenants of the lease are applicable to the 

 peculiarities of every farm, or the circumstances 

 of the tenant to wliom it is let. No disputes will 

 then arise about miscropping. He will easily dis- 

 cover whether the progressive or retrograde con- 

 dition of the tenants arises from their own industry 

 or neo-lio-ence, or from circumstances connected 

 with tlie^state or situation of the farms themselves. 

 He will regulate his conduct accordingly, by en- 

 couraging the industrious and skilful, reproving the 

 indole°nt,°or amending the unfavorable circumstan- 

 ces of the farms. Such a man's opinion will greatly 

 influence that of the tenantry, and community of 

 sentiment will produce mutual kindliness of inter- 

 course between them. 



' Every land oivner, who resides in his mansion- 

 house in the country, must have as much land in 

 his own possession as to make what is familiarly 

 termed a " home fami." Corn, hay, and straw will 

 be required for the horses ; green food throughout 

 all the seasons must be provided for the dairy 

 cows ; fowls and dogs must be supported ; butch- 

 er's meat must be regularly supplied in the best 

 condition ; and the whole domestic establishment 

 must be maintained. To effect all this, two hun- 

 dred acres of arable land, besides lawns and pad- 

 docks, are required. A manager for all this estab- 

 lishment nmst be procured. Another evil arises 

 from the appointment of this functionary, He be- 

 comes proud in his new place, because he is in the 

 service of a laird ; overbearing, because he knows 

 he is the only one acquainted with the management 

 of land ; important, because he finds himself pur- 

 veyor for the whole establisliment, and could starve 

 the garrison at any ti.me to a surrender ; haughty, 

 because disposing of a few unnecessary articles 

 from the farm, he becomes the bearer, for a time, 

 of a little loose casli. The temptations of his office 

 become too strong for his virtue, he aggrandizes 



