1860. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



411 



you ; they are not. Agriculture is imperfect. 

 But with its present literature, I think nothing 

 better for its advancement than individual tests 

 on the soil, by men having strong common sense, 

 and loving their business. Farmers may find a 

 profit in splitting rails, but not in hairs. They 

 who till the soil for a livelihood cannot stop long 

 to ascertain whether ])lowing ten inches deep is 

 better than nine, or whether manure buried four 

 inches is more advantageous than that of three. 

 It is enough for them to get their plowing at an 

 ordinary depth, and plenty of manure to apply in 

 the ordinary way. Neither is it necessary that 

 they should know the name and history of every 

 weed that falls under the hoe in their gardens, or 

 that carbonic acid enters largely into the organi- 

 zation of plants. 



T. — But you ought not to overlook chemistry, 

 botany, vegetable physiology, geology, &c. Cer- 

 tainly, these sciences every farmer ought to be 

 conversant with. 



W. — That would be a laborious accomplish- 

 ment ; a little tending to the superfluous and or- 

 namental ; and if all those who live upon the 

 products of the earth were obliged to wait for 

 their fool till such farmers produced it, farming 

 would not be likely to be profitable afterwards, 

 even if a few passed through the famine to do 

 the raising \ 



T. — Strange ideas of education ! Well, now 

 tell me frankly, are you not in favor of those sci- 

 ences I alluded to being taught in our common 

 schools, so that youth, when they come upon the 

 farm, may know something of, and love these 

 studies ? 



W. — Yes, voluntarily and with discrimination. 

 They are now so taught in our high schools and 

 academies, and in some of our common, district 

 schools, when the parents or scholars wish them. 

 You, I know, are in favor of teaching children 

 something that will be useful to them in after 

 life. So am I, and so is every sensible person. 

 But if I do not intend my son to become a farm- 

 er, I do not wish him to spend his time in study- 

 ing these branches with a view of becoming a 

 farmer, because, forsooth, farming may be the 

 most important vocation of the State. And I 

 would not admit that the Board of Agriculture, 

 or the Government should dictate to me what was 

 best for him to pursue in after life, and educate 

 him accordingly, whatever his, or my wishes. 

 This idea is education become rabid. The com- 

 mon or high school is not the place to learn trades, 

 but merely to get the rudiments of a general (not 

 special) education. 



T. — But I trust you don't regard agriculture 

 as a trade. I look upon it as the most compli- 

 cated science known. 



W. — So it is ; unfathomable in mystery ; nev- 

 ertheless, it's a trade, the practicable" opera- 

 tions of which are as easily learned as most any 

 other manual vocation ; and it has been well 

 said that the unscientific farmer can raise as 

 good crops as the ablest chemist. Or it is an 

 art, the thorough understanding of which is of 

 more importance than its scientific aspect. The 

 tilling of the earth being the common and natu- 

 ral business of mankind, (of which all others are 

 the exception,) it w^ould be cruel in the Creator 

 to make the conditions of good crops so compli- 

 cated as to defeat the purposes of agriculturL'. 



r.— But, Mr. Waddles, I don't see but your 

 system of education would keep every boy at 

 home, or at least, you would have no institutions 

 to teach the professions we have just alluded to ; 

 viz. : law, medicine and theology. 



TT''. — Not at all. If I had a son who wanted 

 to study medicine, (and the Board of Agriculture 

 had no objection,) I would send him to a medical 

 school ; for a farm would not be the best place to 

 study this science. And so, also, of law and the- 

 ology ; these studies being necessarily more in- 

 tellectual, for which a well conducted farm would 

 furnish but few facilities. But if I wanted him 

 to become a fanner, and carried on a good farm 

 myself, I would keep him at home, or put him 

 with some good agriculturist ; where, probably, 

 instead of creating a debt of several hundred 

 dollars, he might earn a portion of the sum. 

 And this would be his institution, and a very 

 proper one. If he wished to study this subject 

 at school, fifty cents would furnish him with the 

 proper books. But this should be voluntary on 

 the part of parents and children. The State ob- 

 viously should not assume to teach agriculture in 

 the common schools any more than any other 

 useful vocation ; for instance, that of a builder, 

 machinist, shoemaker, engraver, &c. 



T. — Well, sir, if the town schools did all this, 

 would it not be better than spending years in 

 teaching the useless dead languages and the high- 

 er mathematics ? Besides, what objection can 

 there be to teaching agricultural chemistry, bota- 

 ny, &c., even if they do not give the rudiments 

 of other callings ? 



[To be concluded iu another number.] 



For the New England Farmer. 

 A TEST OF CHABACTEK. 



Messrs. Editors : — At the commencement of 

 this century and ])reviously, farming was the prin- 

 cipal business of New England ; and rearing swine 

 and fattening pork was one of the most impor- 

 tant items in farming. Almost invariably swine 

 run at large during the spring and summer. You 

 could hardly pass a farm-house without seeing from 

 two to twenty, old and young, in the highway, or 

 squealing, or wrangling about the trough w"here 

 they \fere fed, all yoked and ringed according to 

 law ; for so the statute provided ; that swine "go- 

 ing at large, be ringed all the year round so as to 

 prevent their doing damage by rooting," and 

 "yoked from the first day of April to the last day 

 of October." Yokes were often made of a crotched 

 stick with a bar put across below the neck upon 

 the two prongs. If this were not done by the 

 owners of the swine, every town had its board of 

 hog-reeves, usually young married men, duly qual- 

 ified, whose duty it was to yoke and ring till that 

 were found in the highway not so accoutred. 

 The fee for yoking and ringing every swine was 

 "twelve pence," before the Revolution, afterward, 

 "eighteen." Most farmers, of course, took care 

 of their own swine. Hence hog-yokes upon ev- 

 ery farm were an important article. 



I remember an anecdote, which, in my boyhood, 

 I used to hear my father relate of one of his 

 neighbors, Avhich may be worth preserving, for 

 it has a moral that may apply to other times and- 

 other occupations. He was accustomed to hire 



