122 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Marcii 



of her soil has been marketed in its produce. The 

 very best poraons of it have been taken away, 

 leaving those which are hard, cold and barren. 

 So cold and hard that surplus water no longer 

 flows in natural channels, but stands, and chills, 

 and sours and poisons the very ground it occupies. 

 So very hard that it refuses the subduing influen- 

 ces of the sun and atmosphere. 



It was a mistaken policy that led to this pro- 

 tracted and perpetual drainage of the soil without 

 returning to it equivalents to keep up its harvest- 

 yielding qualities. But the deed is done, and it 

 only remains that man by intelligent labor restore 

 what has been lost by ignorance and neglect. 



We may well congratulate the farmers of Mas- 

 sachusetts, then, on the passage of the resolution 

 at the head of this article, in the full expectation 

 that the present Legislature, out of pure affection 

 to the Commonwealth, whose interests it is bound 

 to serve, will see the spirit of the resolution en- 

 grafted on our statutes. Then they will have 

 done the noblest work for the farmers of the State 

 that has ever been attempted. 



The inquiry comes up, how this "system of ag- 

 ricultural education shall be adopted to form a 

 part of the educational system of the State ?" 



Different ways of answering or fulfilling the 

 spirit of the resolution will have their advocates. 

 Some, very likely, will thiidi that departments 

 should be established in our colleg?s, and profes- 

 sorships richly endowed to carry out a course of 

 instruction favorable to the object; others will 

 see the object gained by establishing agricultural 

 schools and experimental farms ; and another class 

 will suppose that our academies and high schools 

 can very well be made the auxiliaries of agricul- 

 tural science. 



We should heartily rejoice if rural art in all its 

 departments were thoroughly taught in all these 

 institutions, for there can be no doubt but very 

 much good would result in consequence. We hope 

 the day will come when our colleges Avill be more 

 respectful of the farmers and their employments 

 thaii they have ever yet shown themselves to be. 

 We sincerely hope, that Massachusetts will have 

 her agricultural, as she now has her law, medical 

 and theological schools. 



But even if this were done, it would not fully 

 meet the necessities of the agricultural interest, 

 for there would be an outlay of time and expense 

 attending a course in these institutions, that but 

 a small proportion of prospective farmers would 

 be willing, or able to meet ; so that the many re- 

 quire some system of instruction brought more 

 within their means, to enable them to become the 

 intelligent cultivators of the soil, which the spirit 

 of the age requires them to l^e. 



The people have colleges scattered all over our 

 State. We find their humble structures at almost 

 every corner of the land. These colleges are be- 

 ginning to be much better endowed both pecuni- 

 arily and intellectually than they once were. Bet- 

 ter ' buildings are arising, and more spacious 

 grounds are laid out for their accommodation. Li 

 past time, they have been the strength and glory 

 of the land. In their future, we anticipate much 

 for intelligence, usefulness and honor. They ever 

 have been, and ever must be, the colleges from 

 which the masses of agriculturists and artizans 

 gradviate. If agricultural schools ever become a 

 strong band and ornament in our country's pros- 



perity, these colleges — our common schools will 

 be the nurseries in which thrifty plants are pre* 

 pared to remove to the higher gardens. 



In past time, there have been great obstacles in 

 the way of introducing the services connected 

 with agriculture into our common school system, 

 in the want of suitable books. But fortunately, at 

 the ])resent time, these difficulties are fully re- 

 moved. Prof. Gray's "How Plants Grow," and 

 "First Principles of Botany," are written in as fa- 

 miliar style as the most ordinary reading book. 

 "Wells's Science of Common Things" contains 

 more than a thousand and one facts, which relate to 

 things that surround us, and in which we are daily 

 interested, all communicated in an agreeable and 

 attractive style. "Natural Philosophy," and 

 "Chemistry," both by the same author, are both 

 well adapted to the school-room or the family, 

 while Doctor Hitchcock smites the rocks, and 

 makes them give forth intellectual waters, clear, 

 pure and sweet, in his "Elementary Geology," in 

 streams so placid and simple, that any boy who can 

 reduce a fraction, can fathom its mysteries. Then 

 there are other works equal in value, to follow in 

 succession, until a full course is represented, and 

 the practical mental food for a life-time is set 

 before the student. 



There are, liowever, one or two difficulties yet to 

 be removed, before these studies can be success- 

 fully pursued in the common schools. The fu'st 

 is, teachers competent to the work. Now-a-days, 

 the teacher qualifies himself to teach those 

 branches required by law. We can scarcely find 

 one who has paid attention to any of the studies 

 above named, or at least, that claims knowledge 

 of them sufficient to teach. They may speak bad 

 French, worse German, or miserable Italian, while 

 with nature as she exists around them, whether in 

 her economy or her beauty, they have sought no 

 acquaintance, and claim no affinity. If our Nor- 

 mal schools are to educate our teachers, let them 

 first educate them in the things available in prac- 

 tical life, es]5ecially in the mysteries of its beauti- 

 ful suri'oundings. 



Lot agricultural education form a part of the 

 common school educational system of our State, 

 and let teachers be qualified and enter into it with 

 the zeal that the interests of the State demand, 

 and a new and brighter day would dawn upon our 

 rural interest, than the most sanguine can easily 

 imagine. Wbi. Bacon. 



Richmond, Jan. 17, 1860. 



For the New England Farmer, 



IS PAKMIITG PROFITABLE? 



This seems to be the engrossing topic of several 

 of your coi-respondents from Middlesex and Hamp- 

 den, as it undoubtedly is the object of the efforts 

 of a majority of the hard hands throughout the 

 Commomvealth. For what otlier purposes do 

 they toil from "early morn to latest eve," but to 

 secure the profits of their labor ? "By their fruits 

 shall ye know them." Look about among the 

 prosperous and well-to-live in the land, and where 

 will you find these classes to abound more than 

 among the industrious farmers ? Who ever knew 

 a farmer who stuck to his business, letting aione 

 speculation of all kinds, to fail ? I should as soon 

 think of meeting a white crow. Fail is a term not 



