16 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



JTTLY ir, 18TO 



(From the Cleveland Herald ) 



EDUCATION OP FARMERS— No. III. 



FACILITIES FOR KNOWLEDGE. 



BIr Harris — I have already hazarded tlie opin- 

 ion that fanners, even in their present neglected 

 state, posse.ss a greater amount of useful knowledge 

 than any other class of the community. I also be- 

 lieve that their knowledge is very limited, compar- 

 ed«with what it might be, if they understood and 

 appreciated what they already possess, and improv- 

 ed their advantages for acquiring more. For I am 

 entirely settled in the opinion that their advantages 

 for acquiring useful knowledge are superior lo 

 those of any other class, and much superior to those 

 of the professed scholar. 



For acquiring a knowledge of natural science, a 

 farm is one of the best schools — is perhaps the best 

 school which can be provided. Chemistry, Natu- 

 ral Philosophy, Kotany, Entomology, Geology, Min- 

 eralog}'. Physiology, Geometry, and some other de- 

 partments of mathematics, are all brought to view 

 upon a farm, and not in abstract theory merely, but 

 in their practical operations upon a large scale. 



\\ hile the farm is a laboratory and a cabinet of 

 nature, where the laws and the products of science 

 are constantly and beautifully developed, every op- 

 erator must necessarily form some acquaintance 

 with those laws and products, and an acquaintance 

 too, more familiar and more thorough, because 

 more practical, than can be acquired by the mere 

 student of books. 



The intercourse of farmers with other classes of 

 society, gives them an opportunity for an acquain- 

 , tance with men and the reciprocal interests of men 

 of different pursuits which the mere student can 

 never form by reading, let it be ever so e.xtensive 

 and various. On these reciprocal interests are 

 founded the principles of political economy, and 

 the necessity of governments and laws to promote 

 and protect those interests. Consequently a farm, 

 and the business of farming, furnishing as they do, 

 the very best school for a practical acquaintance 

 with men and things, are well calculated to pro- 

 duce more enlightened and sounder statesmen than 

 can be produced by a confinement within the walls 

 of a college or the shelves of a library, however 

 long that confinement may be, or however studious- 

 ly devoted. 



The winter evenings of farmers are admirably 

 fitted for enlarging by reading, for arranging under 

 genera) laws and bringing into the form of science, 

 the results of their summer operations upon their 

 farms. For compaiing their own views and exper- 

 iments with those of other farmers, as triven in va- 

 rious agricult'-iral journals, one of whicii' certaltily 

 ought to be taken by every man who conducts a 

 farm. 



The benefit of farmers' winter evenings will be 

 greatly increased by social meetings of some doz- 

 en or twenty in the same neighborhood, once or 

 twice a week. These farmers' social lyceums have 

 sometimes resulted iu the course of a winter, in a 

 volume or two of notes, taken from the remarks and 

 statements made in the form of conversation on 

 subjects previously selected for the occasion. P>y 

 the aid of chemical and philosophical apparatus and 

 specimens of minerals, soils, vegetables, insects, 

 &c., which may be procured at a slight expense, 

 especially w hen the farmers' lyceum is a depart- 

 me: t of a town or village society, a great variety 

 of experiments and observations may be made, 

 which could not fail to benefit every individual 



who should engage in them, both as a farmer and 

 an enlightened citizen. 



Besides the winter evenings and social lyceums 

 of farmers, they may without difficulty, during the 

 summer, even in their greatest pressure of business, 

 find time to read a weekly or monthly journal, like 

 the New England Farmer, by II. Colman, the Gen- 

 esee Farmer, by Mr Tucker, the Cultivator, by 

 Judge Buel, or the Farmer's Monthly Visitor, by 

 Governor Hill. They may also try a great varie- 

 ty of experiments, without cost or inconvenience, 

 which have sometimes,at their social lyceums, been 

 distributed and assigned to their fespective mem- 

 bers, for their special attention, to be reported upon 

 the succeeding winter. 



The business of the farmer presents fewer temp- 

 tations to dishonesty than any other profession. 

 They are consequently, as there is reason to be- 

 lieve, more honest as a body, than any other class. 

 'I hey are also favorably situated for devotional feel- 

 ings and exercises, and with them, for the study of 

 the bible, that inexhaustUile fountain of knowledge 

 and wisdom. 



These views and facts, with many others which 

 might be presented, if time and the occasion per- 

 mitted, will prob.ibly be sufficient to satisfy any 

 candid mind that farmers have peculiar facilities 

 for acquiring extensive and sound knowledge, and 

 for becoming enlightened' citizens and consistent 

 christians. Their inducements for becoming truly 

 scientific and intelligent, are certainly not inferior 

 to their facilities for such acquisitions. There is 

 perhaps no d partment of natural science which 

 the farmer has not frequent, and almost daily occa- 

 sion to apply in his business. Geology and miner- 

 alogy teach him the nature of his soil, with the 

 proper materials and modes of improving it. Chem- 

 istry teaches the best modes and applications of 

 manures, preparing soils, preserving his hay, root*, 

 and other vegetables, and preparing food for mrfn 

 and beast. Hotany teaches the laws of vegetation, 

 the properties of plants, both for cultivation and to 

 be eradicated from his farm, changing and improv- 

 ing his seed, the rotation of crops, &c. Entomol- 

 ogy acquaints the farmer with some of his most 

 powerful enemies — with the cut worm, the wheat 

 fly, the canker worm, the grasshopper, the rose 

 hug, the moth, the weavil, and many other insects 

 which he has frequent occasion to destroy, or to 

 avoid their ravages. Natural Philosophy teaches 

 the proper construction and best application of the 

 plough, the scythe, the jhoe, the wagon, the har- 

 ness for the horse and ox, and of every agricultural 

 implement which can be named. Geometry teach- 

 es the construction of buildings, the fencing; and 

 di-viding of his farm, the measuring of wood timber, 

 and stone, the construction of drains, the digging of 

 Tvsll? and cisterns, and many nameless but impor- 

 tant operations which he has occasion to perform. 



If I am not mistaken, no men or class of men, 

 have so many facilities or so many inducements, 

 for an extensive and familiar acquaintance with 

 science and various departments of useful knowl- 

 edge as farmers. 



But I must close for the present with the high 

 esteem of your friend, J. HOLBROOK." 



No. IV. 



SCHOOL TKACHERS. 



Mr Harris — Furnishin_g the seventy thousand 

 American schools with well qualified teachers is, 

 perhaps, the most important and the most difficult 

 subject connected with the intellectual and moral 



character, and of course with the liberties of our 

 republic. As long as lalents, like every other ar- 

 ticle of commerce, will find the best market, meiL 

 of high intellectual and moral attainments c.innot 

 be retained in schools attwentyfive dollars a month, 

 while other professions offer four times the salary, 

 with one-half the labor and drudgery, and twice 

 the respectability. No matter how many teachers' 

 seminaries are established or how richly endowed, 

 and how great the number or the qualifications of 

 teachers — they can never be retained in common 

 schools until they are paid, and until the profes- 

 .sion of teaching stands as high in public estima- 

 tion as that of law, medicine, or divinity. 



It must also be recollected on this subject, liko 

 every other in a system of national education, that 

 more than three-fourths of the subjects of education 

 are to be farmers and farmers' wives. Conse • 

 quently, that system which is best fitted to pro- 

 mote the farming interests, is best fitted for the in- 

 terest of our Republic. In view of that fact, mt 

 one can doubt hut a practical and scientific farmer 

 may be better qualified to educate farmers, than 

 the mere scholar, however highly accomplished. — 

 This opinion is entirely corroborated by facts, as 

 many farmers, whom I have known to pursue teach- 

 ing as a winter profession, for a course of years, 

 have made far better teachers than are ever found 

 in students of a college, or in medical, law, or. di- 

 vinity students, who use teaching as a kind of cats- 

 paw profession to aid them into another, wliich of- 

 fers larger emolument and higher respectability. 

 While our schools are furnished from the students 

 mentioned, it is evident that they must suffer all 

 the embarrassments, losses and other evils which 

 cannot fail to arise from inexperienced laborers ; 

 and not inexperience merely, but those making no 

 calculations and taking no means to acquire either 

 experience or skill. 



Let young farmers adopt teaching as their pro- 

 fession during the winter, for a course of years, 

 and these two hither insurmountable obstacles, the 

 want of salaries and experience, will, in a measure, 

 at least, be removed. The farmer could afford to 

 teach in his own district, at thirty dollars a month, 

 for four months in a year, better than one who de- 

 pended entirely upon teaching for the support of a 

 family could for fifty dollars ; as with the aid of a 

 laborer whom he miirht hire for ten dollars a month, 

 or perhaps by the assistance of his sons without 

 hired labor, he might attend to all the winter busi- 

 ness of his farm in addition to his services in tho 

 school. 



It is evident that a young farmer, who at sixteeni 

 Or eighteen years of age, should commence shaping 

 his course for the business of teaching as a profes- 

 sion, though it might be but for the winter, would 

 act under very different motives, and consequently 

 make greater and higher efforts than a kind of in- 

 terloper, who had escaped from another profession 

 just long enough, and devoting just hours enough 

 to secure a few dollars to help him on to his more 

 respectable calling. The former would be upon 

 the alert to learn the best modes of teaching, to as- 

 certain what were the best books, and to become 

 truly intelligent and skilful in his adopted profes- 

 sion; while the latter would meet, they always do 

 meet, any proposals for school improvements with 

 " / have not time to attend to them," as I must keep 

 along with my class in college, or I wish to be ad- 

 mitted to the bar next court, or next year, or to a 

 license for preaching or practising medicine. 



To Diy mind it is evident that a praciical farmer 



