398 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



JUNE 19, 183( 



A.NI) HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



Boston, Wednesday, June 19, 1839. 



LETTER FROM J. HOLBROOK. 



Rkv. Mr Colman — 



Berca, May 21, 1839. 



Dear Sir,— I send you a copy of the Cleveland Her- 

 ald, containing six essays on tlie " Education of Farm- 

 ers," which 10 some extent, at least, will meet your 

 views on the subject. The importance of the subject I 

 am sure you will appreciate, and I think approve of the 

 niea.sures to promote it, which are the two principal 

 points in the case. 



I have been strongly impressed with the policy of 

 referring farmers to themselves, the means within and 

 around tlieni, for intellectual and moral culture, from a 

 Jarge intercourse among the farmers in l*enn8ylvania, 

 where 1 iiave recently spent two or three years. That 

 measure has led the German (armere, who, you know, 

 have been opposed to a college, and even a book edu- 

 cation, to enter heartily and successfully upon educating 

 thevisclves. It is exceedingly common to find among 

 this class of our citizens, large " Fasiilv Cabinets," 

 embracing a great variety of minerals, plants, insects, 

 &c. In some sections almost every family has such a 

 collection, and in connexion with them they have nu- 

 merous Lyceums, one of which started the •' Practical 

 Farmer," of Merhanicsburg. The members have also 

 entered very sys'ematically into experimental agricul- 

 ture, by selecting a large list of experiments to be tried, 

 and dividing them and allotting them to the particul.ir 

 charge of respective individuals. 



It is not my wish or intention to speak to the dispa- 

 ragement of colleges or any other class of institutions, or 

 of the individuals educated at them. I only wish to 

 have farmers iinderstund and appreciate their own faci- 

 lities fur acquiring knowledge, with the amount and 

 kind they already possess. If 1 am not mistaken, know- 

 ing how to hoe a hill of coin, harness a horse, feed a 

 pig, or make a chees;> is knowledge, and Mie/uf know- 

 ledge, no less than an acquaintance with the ioflections 

 of a Greek verb. 



I am aUo convinced from large experience, that a farm 

 is one of the best establishments for promoting solid sci- 

 ence. I have attended three courses of lectures by Pro- 

 fessor Sillinian, and was much with him in his labora- 

 tory, but I found the farm which I cultivated for many 

 years, the best laboratory of the two — certainly for many 

 of the fundamental principles of chemical science. 



The plan f u supplying our schools with teachers will 

 probably meet your approbation, particularly as it is in- 

 tended for farming communities or country towns, and 

 not for cities or large villages. The plan meets almost 

 entire appiohation in Pennsylvania, where it has been 

 fully and extensively discus.^ed, and, to some extent, put 

 in practice. 



The plan of " Circuit Schools" yoti will probably be 

 disposed, as I am sure you will be able, to advance. A 

 prominent ol'ject of our establishment, the "Lvcfum 

 Village" and Seminary, is to qualify teachers to take 

 charge of sut^h schools, also to act as agents or mission- 

 aries for the cause of education, of a more natural, prac- 

 tical and elevated character, than is generally procured 

 in our schnols, or even colleges. The apjiiicants are 

 very numerous, many more thati we can accommodate 

 at present, though by another year we hope to 

 have our accommodations much enlarged. We 

 have lliSO acres of land, ample water power, both on a 

 creek and river, inexhaustible stone quarries, for grind- 

 stones, much the best 1 have ever seen, far superior to 

 the Nova Scotia stones ; two saw mills at work most of 

 the time, cutting lumber for our village, and some 

 measures in progress fir the manufactory of appa- 

 ratus, with tlio intention of reducing the price to one 

 lialf or one third of its present cost, and of a superior 

 quality, for practical illustiationa, in chemistry, natural 

 philosophy, mechanics, hydraulics, arithmetic, geometry, 

 astronomy, &c. to any now to be procured. 



The plan of-' Scientific Erchunires" referred to in the 

 essays is already widely extended, both in this and 

 other countries. Specimens, numerous specimens, both 

 of nature and art, have been sent from schools in various 

 places, especially in Philadelphia and New York, to 

 every part of the world. Measures are how in progress 



to send specimens to every member of Congress and to 

 every legislature in the Union, during their next ses- 

 sions. Many have already been sent to the members of 

 Congress and with the happiest lesults; they have also 

 been sent or exhibited at several legislatures, where they 

 have made very brief but very effective speeches in fa- 

 vor of rational practical education. 



Mr Tucker, of the Genesee Farmer, is deeply inter- 

 ested in these plans, and desirous of presenting them to 

 his numerous readers in a tangible practicable form. — 

 If the same should be done by all or most of thirtytwo 

 agricultural journals in our country, a system of mea- 

 sures might probably be put in operation, which would 

 greatly promote and greatly elevate the character, both 

 of education and of farming interests. 



Rev. H. O. Sheldon, Post Master of this place, is a 

 warm and efficient friend of rational improvement of 

 every kind ; and is a successful agent of the " Genesee 

 Farmer," many of whicfi he distributes from his office. 

 If you should deem it expedient to present this subject 

 under any form in your paper, he, no less than myself, 

 would esteem it a favor to have a copy containing the 

 notice sent to him. He might possibly circulate a few 

 copies to subscribers here of the New England Farmer. 

 He has procured, at least, one subscriber for the 

 Monthly Visitor, of Concord, N. H., and has introduced 

 various publications of a useful character to the citizens. 



I have extended this communication much beyond my 

 intention when I took my pen, and will add the very 

 respectful regards of 



Your Friend, 



J. HOLBROOK. 



Remarks on Mr Holbrookes Letter — Condition of 

 Pennsylvania — Practical Education. 



We insert with much pleasure Mr Holbrook's letter ; 

 and shall wait impatiently the arrival of the Cleveland 

 Herald, for a fuller explanation of his views on a sub- 

 ject of the highest moment. Practical and Popular Edu- 

 cation We shall not now go at large into this matter, 

 as we iiave an article on the subject in preparation for 

 another occasion ; and do not wish to anticipate it. 



We are glad to hear from him in Pennsylvania; and 

 should have expected from the agricultural population 

 of that stale all the encouragement which his plans for 

 practical improvement have met with. We have often 

 heard with incredulity and some mixture of indignation, 

 the German population of Pennsylvania spoken of in 

 disdain as a set of ignorant, semi-savage boors, who de- 

 spise everything like education and have no desire for 

 knowledge ; but when we have passed through different 

 sections of that magnificent stale, and witnessed tlieir no- 

 ble agricultural establishments and improvements, which 

 are not surpassed and scarcely rivalled in any part of 

 our country, their substantial houses, their noble barns, 

 their spring houses, their fields waving with the most 

 luxuriant and richest harvests, which the earth can 

 yield, and which can be brought out only at the call of 

 eminent skill and industry; when we have seen their 

 splendid teams of horses, and the excellence of their 

 equipments, the abundance of their markets and the im- 

 mense amounts of their agricultural products ; when we 

 consider the unrivalled excellence of their butler and 

 beef, and mutton and poultry, and their early and libe- 

 ral introduction of the best breeds of sheep and neat 

 cattle, and their persevering and expensive attempts to 

 improve therr slock ; when further we observe their ex- 

 traordinary public improvements in turnpikes, bridges, 

 railroads and canals in which Pennsylvania has complete- 

 ly distanced all her sister states, by her munificent invest- 

 ments of capital and by the admirable manner in which 

 her public works have been executed, then we have 

 been disposed to ask, where is the evidence of all this 

 ignorance and stupidity, this aversion to improvement 

 with which the population of Pennsylvania is incessant- 

 ly reproached .' This assumption of superiority on the 

 part of some persons, who, where the German farmers 

 have been ready to spend a dollar, they have been re- 



luctant to expend even a cent for public improveme; 

 is exquisitely ridiculous, to apply no harsher term. 



It was our good fortune three or four years since, 

 travelling through Pennsylvania, to fall in with a lai 

 body of Pennsylvanian gentlemen, who were proceedi 

 together to some public business-meeting at Harrisbu 

 and with whom we passed a day and a night in the i 

 nal boat. They were Pennsylvania farmers and mar 

 facturers ; and men of better manners or better inf 

 malion are seldom met with. A population compos 

 of such men, or of men of the character indicated 

 their private and public improvements, we cannot dot 

 will be ready to second ,with their personal influen 

 and tlieir money, any feasible, practical, and subsiant 

 schemes for the general welfare. 



We cannot agree with Mr Holbrook in speaking d 

 paragingly of scientific lectures in chemistry, as 

 think he does in his letter. He is among the last m 

 from whom we should expect it, and perhaps we misi 

 derstand him. We admit that what a man acqui: 

 from his own personal investigations and experimei 

 affects his mind with a deeper impression than that 

 which he merely listens or of which lie is a pass; 

 spectator. He may find in the earth the best laboralc 

 for the application of the principles of chemistry and t 

 ascertainment of many valuable chemical truths. I 

 how can there be a doubt that his attendance upon 1 

 lectures and experiments of an intelligent philosopl 

 whose life has been devoted to inquiries and eip< 

 ments in natural science, with all the advantages \vh 

 an extensive and improved apparatus could afford, m 

 be in the highest degree beneficial; and, in fact,' 

 very best preparation he could have for the discovi 

 and application of scientific and practical truths in 

 own agricultural operations ? What Mr Holbrook lea 

 in Professor Silliman's laboratory, has undoubtedly gii 

 to him increased interest, pleasure, and success in 

 farming; and has been the great stimulus and the s 

 cessful guide to his public-spirited exertions to rem 

 knowledge everywhere accessible to the people; and 

 create a strong taste and passion among them for natu 

 science. 



Of the comparative value of what is called a classi 

 education we do not like to trust ourselves to speak 

 this time, because we have not room to say what 

 would ; and we should be sorry to throw out opinio 

 which would be deemed heretical, without giving i 

 reasons for those opinions at large. We have opinic 

 on the subject of education and reasons for those op 

 ions ; and, if life is spared, those who will take I 

 trouble to read what we have to say, shall hear from 

 fully. In the mean time we have only to suggest tli 

 though all knowledge is useful, it seems a ridicuh 

 waste of time to begin our studies where all who wt 

 before us began, instead of beginning where they left c 

 and so taking advantage of their experience ; that t 

 devotion of the best years of life and of the faculties oft 

 mind in their brightest vigor to the study of a dead la 

 guage, which contains nothing useful but what may 

 obtained in a thousandth part of the time through t 

 medium of a translation, and merely for the sake of t 

 pleasure of understanding the accurate inflections 

 Greek tenses and declensions and of enjoying the e 

 phony of a Greek dialect, is a waste of treasure anc 

 piece of ridiculous coxcombery of which men of sen 

 stiould see the criminality and the folly. We will a 

 alsi> our conviction that our colleges and universities a 

 actually behind the age; that many of our academi 

 and boarding-schools mistake the true ends of educatio 

 and furnish that only which is superficial and a po 

 equivalent for the time and money expended ; that o 

 theological schools are most of them the mere nurseri 



