,S60. 



NEW EXGLAND FAR:sr>'?E. 



169 



LEGISLATIVE AGKICTJLTUBAL 



MEBTIlSrQ. 



[Keported for the Kew England Farmer bt Tnos. BR.tDiET. | 



The sixth meeting of the present session of the 

 Legislative Agricultural Society was held in the 

 Representatives' Hall at the State House, on 

 Monday evening, Dr. George B. Loring, of Sa- 

 lem, in the Chair. The subject for discussion was 

 "xlgricidtural Education,''^ it having been contin- 

 led from the previous meeting. 



On taking the chair, Dr. Loring said he had un- 

 derstood that the subject for discussion would be 

 "The Feeding of Stock," and he was intending to 

 address the meeting on this, having expressed his 

 views on education before, but he thought the 

 two subjects might well be considered together, as 

 they were so closely allied. Agriculture, said he, 

 lies at the foundation of all education, and the 

 subject might profitably be discussed throughout 

 the entire series of meetings, and then not be fin- 

 ished. Agriculture, without education, must be 

 to a certain extent a failure ; there have been 

 exceptions, both in Europe, and in our own State 

 even, but these were exceptions, and did not af- 

 fect the rule. 



The speaker said his chief object in appearing 

 before the Board of Agriculture, as stated at the 

 previous meeting, was to urge the publication of 

 an agricultural manual for our schools, so that the 

 young might take an interest in it, and profit by 

 it. Chemistry, said he, is a pleasant and inter- 

 esting study, so is botany, and more than this, to 

 make agriculturists of our children, we must im- 

 press on their minds the importance of it. Now 

 a farmer's child is taught to consider that every 

 profession is higher than its father's, and until we 

 show the falsity of tliis, we cannot hope to see ag- 

 riculture prosper. 



I want to see tgpics discussed in our schools 

 that will so interest children that they will go 

 home and talk them over at the fireside ; I want 

 them taught what sheep are, what kind are profi- 

 table to keep, what the cost of keeping is, what 

 tlieir wool will sell for, how much they eat, and 

 what is best to feed them on ; what every tree is, 

 what stock is, what manures are, and the various 

 kinds for the various crops, &c., and by impart- 

 ing such knowledge as this, boys will go home 

 from school knowing that something good can be 

 done on our farms. Then will be time to estab- 

 lish county schools and agricultural colleges, but 

 the education should be begun in our common 

 schools, at once. 



The speaker then said there was another source 

 of instruction he would mention, and which was 

 of the utmost importance — the introduction of 

 good agricultural books into the farmer's family. 

 What is more interesting in literature, he asked, 



than good agricultural books ? No Congression- 

 al Documents go through the country so fast or 

 sn far, or are half so much sought after, as the 

 "Patent Office Reports on Agriculture," poor as 

 those are, and this shows the great amount of in- 

 terest that is taken in the profession. 



Dr. Loring said that he considered agriculture 

 as an art, rather than a science, and asked, in this 

 connection, whether there was any man who could 

 tell which was the best method of feeding stock ? 

 He thought there was not, — as it had not yet been 

 discovered, so far as he had heard. He had tried it 

 for a mmiber of years and had not found it out. 

 Cattle, said he, eat what is placed before them — 

 what they can get, but he had never heard of the 

 man that had solved the problem as to what was 

 the best feed. Cato said the best branch of agri- 

 culture was to feed stock well, and the next best 

 branch to feed stock moderately. He, Dr. Loring, 

 supposed that the best feed for cattle was good 

 English hay ; you may, said he, steam corn stalks 

 and fix up some kind of palatable feed, but it was 

 an open question as to what was the best feed. 

 There is no rule, and, when the question was dis- 

 cussed, he would give the maxim of Cato as the 

 ground to commence upon. 



Rev. Mr. Stebbins, of Woburn, being called 

 on, said that his remarks at the previous meeting 

 had been of a rambling character, and ho was • 

 glad to have this privilege of speaking more con- 

 nectedly on the question. Agricultural education,, 

 said he, is a subject of the greatest importance^ 

 and lies at the bottom of stock feeding. The 

 sciences which lay at the bottom of agricultiu"al 

 education are chemistry, botany and geology or 

 mineralogy. The relations of vegetation to the 

 soil and of the soil to vegetation, he said, are 

 necessary to be taught in our schools. A child 

 should commence by learning the names of plants 

 around him, their structure, the atmosphere best 

 suited to them ; the names of insects, and wheth- 

 er they are destructive to vegetation or other- 

 wise, the best methods to destroy the destructive 

 ones ; then the names and habits of birds, and 

 what kinds are injurious to the crops, and those 

 which should be allured to remain on the farm. 

 All these things can be taught, said he, while the 

 children are sleeping or trying to sleep in the 

 school, and would be far better and more useful 

 studies in after life than many other things that 

 are now taught, and might be commenced with 

 the youngest scholars. 



Dr. Stebbins then alluded to many subjects on 

 which much time is wasted in teaching scholars, 

 and argued that the time devoted to these would 

 be more than was necessary in learning agricultu- 

 ral branches. He said that the brain of the child 

 in our public schools is now overtasked, and our 

 children are so fully engaged in studies they- have 



