1860. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



157 



sidering. If, said he, we can introduce agricul- 

 tural education into our common schools, and so 

 add $20,000,000 worth of taxable property to our 

 State, this would be a capital investment, and at 

 the same time would make our country look glad 

 instead of sorry — our fields smile instead of weep. 



How shall this be done ? he asked. Many ad- 

 vocate the establishment of an Agricultural Col- 

 lege, farmers' clubs, agricultural exhibitions, the 

 distribution of tracts, &c. These, said he, may have 

 their objects, but they are ephemeral, they do not 

 meet the wants. We have to begin at the foun- 

 dation to build up an enduring system as they 

 have in Scotland ; and Mr. Fay said he thought 

 this could only be done by our common school 

 system. We have educated heretofore in the 

 wrong way, forgetting that seven-eighths of our 

 people live by agriculture ; we have been educat- 

 ing away from agriculture, and it is to our chil- 

 dren's minds a drudge. 



The Massachusetts Society tried the right meth- 

 od forty years ago, but we were a new country 

 then, and if a farmer found one lot did not yield 

 the crop he expected, he went to another lot, there 

 being abundance of land ; but now our land is im- 

 poverished and we have to take the stand that 

 Scotland did twenty years ago, and by education 

 in this direction bring agriculture to be consid- 

 ered a pleasure to our children. This must be 

 done by changing the whole system of instruction, 

 and teaching them agricultural chemistry, botany, 

 and the kindred sciences. 



The speaker urged the importance of this on the 

 meeting, saying that he was so much the strong- 

 er an advocate in favor of it from the fact that he 

 felt the loss of this education himself, and he al- 

 luded to the ease and thoroughness with which 

 the young would learn when the tuition was early 

 commenced. 



He then introduced Mr. George B. Emeeson, 

 as one who had for many years been engaged in 

 the instruction of youth, and yet who had the in- 

 terests of agriculture deeply at heart. 



Mr. Emerson commenced by saying he thought 

 there had been enormous mistakes made in the 

 education of the agricultural part of the commu- 

 nity ; it was a fact that was ringing in everj' man's 

 ears. He inquired what education was now giv- 

 en to benefit the farmer, as such, in our public 

 schools, and contended that the education best 

 adapted for the wants of the farmer would benefit 

 every class of men. The speaker asked why our 

 children should not be taught of what the aii* we 

 breathe is made, and what it is made for, of what 

 the water we di-ink is made, of what the earth we 

 tread, and what the sunshine is, and what its uses. 



The basis of all education, he contended, should 

 be a knowledge of things, and if it Avere possible, 

 he would place every child in the same position 



God placed our first parents, and let it know 

 all about the surrounding objects. There is not 

 a fact about science, said he, that is not easy to 

 learn, and these should be taught by simple ex- 

 periments, which impress themselves forcibly and 

 indelibly on the minds of children, and it is only 

 necessary to get teachers qualified to teach chem- 

 istry, botany, and the like, to have the pupils learn 

 well. It requires less study to teach these than 

 the branches which are now taught. 



Every fact connected with the education neces- 

 sary for a farmer, said the speaker, is more easy 

 for a child to learn than anything else, and if 

 this were not so, I should think God had made a 

 mistake. A child longs for this learning, and to 

 show this, he alluded to the inquiries they invari- 

 ably made. 



Mr. Emerson alluded, humorously, to a state- 

 ment in the recent work of Darwin, that cats were 

 necessary to the growth of clover, and followed the 

 argument through, showing this curious instance 

 of the dependence of one creature upon another. 

 This, said he, is more difficult to understand than 

 almost anything else. Every single fact that lies 

 at the base of what a farmer should know, is ea- 

 sier to learn to the child than what he now has to 

 learn, and these would be the best foundation for 

 the very highest education, and he argued that all 

 our ablest men have come from farms, where they 

 have gained the strength to fill places in our gov- 

 ernment. 



Senator Eddy, of Oxford, said he thought it 

 would be a good thing to educate our children in 

 the branches advocated by the last speaker, but 

 the difficulty in getting teachers appeared to him 

 insurmountable. He would rather put a child of 

 his out in the family of a good farmei-^ whose 

 mind was alive to the improvement of the age, 

 than have him taught by any teacher in our 

 schools, as by this means he would acquire a 

 thorough and practical education, while his stud- 

 ies in school would only give him a superficial 

 knowledge of farming. He said the much larger 

 proportion of our teachers were females, and the 

 majority of these would be afraid to go near a 

 cow, much less being capable of teaching. He 

 said he would rather see a child read a good agri- 

 cultural newspaper than have him study the ma- 

 jority of text-books, and he thought that a young 

 man would learn more by the establishment of 

 farmers' clubs and agricultural libraries, and by 

 the reading of good newspapers, than he would 

 learn by sending him to an agricultural school. 



Rev, Dr. Stebbins was then called on. He 

 regretted that his time was so brief, as he had de- 

 sired to go thoroughly into the consideration of 

 the subject, but he should confine himself to the 

 general heads of what he proposed saying. This 

 matter of agricultural education, said he, is what 



