VOIi. XA'HI. NO. 5. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER, 



Fonhe N. E, Farmer. 



THE EDUCATION OF FARMERS. 



In a late number of your paper, Mr Editor, we 

 alluded to the self education of farmers, as all im- 

 portant to the improvement of our agriculture, and 

 to some of the means that present themselves for 

 tills mode of self-culture. We alluded more par- 

 ticularly to their professional education, and not to 

 their moral and intellectual development. To this 



portion of our subject we shall presently come 



We conceive that this matter of self education, 

 this combination of scientific knowledije and skilful 

 practice, will be one of the great engines for the 

 regeneration of our husbandry, and that it is the 

 absence of it that has kept a discreet culture of the 

 soil so long in the back ground. We moreover en- 

 tertain the highest respect for all self-educHted 

 men, be their calling what it may. 'J'he builders 

 of their own minds and fortunes, they give a char- 

 acter and zest to any pursuit they may enter. Tied 

 down by no dependence upon tlie favors of moneyed 

 3r literary institutions, or the munificence of indi- 

 ifiduals, they are enabled to give free scope to any 

 energy or originality of thought they may possess, 

 ind can model themselves to suit the circumstan- 

 ;es of their situation. They are more nearly tlian 

 iny otlier class of men, creatures of nature, without 

 he artificial deformities of human invention ; and 

 ; know of no more ready and efliciei.t method for 

 mproving any pursuit than the professional self- 

 !ducation of those engaged in it. Let them bury 

 !very prejudice that is not founded on long and 

 veil tried experience — let them avail themselves 

 )f insti-uction from every and any quarter, whether 

 t be book or paper or the lips of those already 

 ersed in the pursuit— let them adapt such instruc- 



ion to their circumstances and e.xpericiice and 



here is no reason why any profession, and more 

 'articularly agriculture, should not meet with all 

 he success and assume the highest rank it can pos- 

 ibly be entitled to. 



But in urging upon our farmers the importance 

 f more thoroughly educating themselves than they 

 ow do, for their peculiar calling, we would not 

 Jrget that there is another vast power for improv- 

 ig our husbandry, and that is by educating our 

 irmiTs' sons for their profession. And here again 

 ic agricultural interest meets with a most unac- 

 ountable and unpardonable neglect at the hands 

 f the public and of those most intimately concern- 

 d in its welfare. While institutions are endowed 

 )r the preparation of yoimg men for almost every 

 ursuit, while the countenance of government is 

 mt to the support of almost every other branch of 

 ducation, and while the munificence of private in- 



the pursuit they are to follow .' Do we ever hear 

 of any peculiar text books offered them to prepare 

 them for being tillers of the soil .= Arc the differ- 

 ent branches of Natural Philosopliy, of Mechanics, 

 Political Economy, &c. &c., put into their hands 

 with reference to, and to train them for, being far- 

 mers ? Are their uiiiids ever directed, in the les- 

 sons they arc continually receiving from friends 

 and teachers, from the pulpit and the rostrum, to 

 the beauties and pleasures, the importance and 

 dignity of agriculture.' And, what is still more, 

 is instruction ever conveyed to them on the imme- 

 diate divisions of husbandry, as conducted on broad 

 and scientific principles, except such as they can 

 gatlier from watching the systems and operations, 

 perliaps crude and erroneous, of their fatliers .' 



In these remarks we would not be understood as 

 complaining of our universities or high schools, or 

 our common schools, as misguided or futile in their 

 efforts. We are not of those who indulge in 

 groundless murmurs at " an aristocracy of learning," 

 'as it is cantingly termed,) or who would draw in- 

 'idious comparisons between ;;cnc(icai common sense 

 and a classical education. It would ill become a 

 citizen of Massachusetts to complain that not e- 

 nough is doing for tlie universal education of the 

 people, or tliat it is not being done in the most ef- 

 fectual manner. Our complaint is, tliat amid the 

 many erfi(ca/io?ianmprovements of the day in our 

 country, so little, I may say that nothing is done to 

 prepare so large a body of our youth, professional- 

 ly, for the culture of the soil. It is the absence of 

 this early education for farmers that has given birth 

 to the idea that is so prevalent, that agriculture is 

 merely the turning up of the sod and the fatting of 

 cattle. Our farmers themselves have too often 

 considered it so, and- the community, judging by 

 those engaged in it, have naturally drawn the same 

 conclusion. And hence the distaste that a large 

 number of our young men manifest for the pursuit. 

 Their minds as well as their bodies must be active, 

 and they are naturally disinclined to bury them- 

 selves in a calling, dependent, as they have been 

 taught to believe, upon muscular exertion alone for 

 success. 



There are then several reasons of great force in 

 our own mind, why agriculture should be made a 

 matter of early education. And first, the success- 

 ful culture of the soil, it will not be denied, draws 

 as largely upon the energies of the mind as the 

 body, and that, besides being dependent upon their 

 development, it is equally so upon many branches 

 of science and art, which to be thoroughly attain- 

 ed, must be early commenced aud long continued. 

 The great principles of animal and vegetable phys- 



iolncrv mn.ll hp nhtainorl V.ir Inn.r „.,,1 ,.1„„ 1 



89 



like the mechanic with tools and materials, without 

 knowing tl.o peculiar, technical principles of the 

 object he is to construct. We can ^nly say, we 

 pity such a man, and trust that his good fortune 

 will supply the deficiencies of his professional ac- 

 quirements. But our limits warn us to close, and 

 we reserve, with your permission, Mr Editor, our 

 remaining remarks for another paper. 



Greenfield, July 15, 1839. n. y 



,Silk Growing is destined to be no small business 

 in Hampshire county. We took occasion with a 

 friend last week to visit three or four of the most 

 intelligent and active men in the neighboring towns 

 engaged in the mulberry and silk business. In 

 Williamsburg, deacon Bodman is growing some 

 twenty or thirty thousand trees of the different 

 kinds, Multicaulis, Canton and Alpine. Some of 

 them promise well, and already he has engaged 

 the crop of Canton trees now growing upon one- 

 fifth of an acre, to be delivered this fall, at $1000. 

 His cocoonery is an old, but spacious building, 

 well ventilated, and he has fed and is feeding about 

 seventy thousand Worms. Dr Bardwell, of Whate- 

 ly, has a plantation of some ten or fifteen thousand 

 trees, of the three varieties, all of which look equal- 

 ly well, and throw off about the same amount of fo- 

 liage. He is not feeding extensively yet, but some 

 specimens of raw silk, reeled upon a simple, but 

 neat machine of his own construction, can hardly 

 be surpassed in beauiy. 



Mr Timothy Smith, of Amherst, is going into 

 the business on a large scale. His plantations of 

 about 50,000 Canton trees, (for he cultivates no 

 other,) are both luxuriant and beautiful. His co- 

 coonery is a very neat affair, the worms having just 

 finished winding, and another crop are about hatch- 

 ing out. His method of winding the cocoons is 

 both neat and beautiful. Small bunches of straw 

 are placed between the boards, upon which the 

 worms feed, and the top and bottom spread out so 

 as to resemble an hour glass. Sixty cocoons are 

 sometimes found in one bunch of straw, the flgss 

 is easily saved, and the place seems just tlie sort 

 of refuge desired by the worms. His reel for 

 winding is simple, and the raw silk just wound by 

 his wortliy spouse, would make an honest Chinese 

 blush, at its superior lustre and beauty. 



It is an entire mistake to suppose those engaged 

 in the business in this county, intend to confine 

 their operations to growing trees. Every practical 

 farmer who has tried the experiment, is satisfied 

 that it can be made one of the most lucrative bran- 

 ches of farming. At least, those now growing 

 trees have so decided. We nre nnt wM =nt;ofie.^ 



