352 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



For the New England Farmer. 



AGRICULTURE IN" OUR COMMON 

 SCHOOLS. 



Mr. Editor : — Ought agriculture to be taught 

 in our common schools ? lu their present state 

 and condition, can it be successfully taught there, 

 •without doing more harm than good ? I make no 

 apology for presenting this subject to the consid- 

 eration of your readers. In this communication, 

 I propose to offer a few reasons Avhy agriculture 

 ought not to be introduced, as a study, into our 

 common schools. 



Perhaps it is unnecessary to remark at the out- 

 set, that our common schools were established for 

 the purpose of teaching reading, writing, spelling 

 and defining of words, grammar, or the use and 

 power of language, arithmetic and geography. 

 These branches have been, and still are taught 

 equally to all without distinction. The children 

 of the rich and the poor, of both sexes, enjoy equal 

 advantages. The design of their education is not 

 to fit them for any jjarticular calling, whether it 

 be that of a farmer, a merchant, a mechanic, or a 

 manufacturer, but, by a thorough training and 

 drilling in the above studies, to prepare them for 

 any occupation or pursuit. 



Now, I object to the introduction of agriculture, 

 as a study, into our common schools, because I 

 believe it would have a tendency to divert atten- 

 tion from those primary and fundamental studies 

 which appropriately belong to them, and be a 

 great injury to the schools. Its effect would be 

 to embarrass the interests of agriculture, and to 

 check the progress of the schools. Our common 

 schools are already burdened with too many 

 studies ; and they are not in a condition to attend 

 to any new ones. We have already so great a 

 multijjlicity of studies in school, that a large pro- 

 portion of the scholars who receive all their educa- 

 tion from this source, are but imperfectly ac- 

 quainted with the first principles and rudiments 

 of their own language, and make a sorry work in 

 writing English composition, and in the spelling 

 and defining of words. In some of the common 

 branches, we sometimes meet with scholars who 

 are as ignorant as the boy who could cipher, but 

 could not read — who could do any sum in arith- 

 metic, as soon as it was read and explained to 

 him. I want scholars who know how to read, as 

 well as cipher. I want fewer studies, but better 

 scholars, in our common schools. 



I object to the introduction of agriculture, as a 

 study, into our common schools, because our 

 teachers have enough else to do, and because they 

 are not qualified to teach it. They have more 

 branches to teach now than they can Avell attend 

 to ; and being unacquainted with the theory and 

 practice of agriculture, they cannot teach the sci- 

 ence correctly ; nor can they bring forward those 

 ready, but striking illustrations which assist the 

 pupil by securing his attention, and interesting 

 him in the study. To the great neglect of the 

 other and more important studies, the teachers 

 would be obliged to spend much time in the vain 

 attempt to impart instruction on topics whicli they 

 do not understand themselves, and wliich they can 

 not impart to others. It is a wise maxim, no lan- 

 tern con emit more light than it has in it. But, if 

 the lantern be made of tin, with a few small holes 

 in the* sides, the light emitted will be very small. 



I object to the introduction of agriculture, as a 

 study, into our common schools, because our 

 schools are of a mixed character, and made up of 

 scholars of all grades and ages, and of both sexes. 

 In fact, most of them are quite too young to under- 

 stand, and to be benefited by the study. As no 

 one can teach more than he knows, so no one can 

 receive instruction which is not adapted to his age 

 and capacities. To teach agriculture to children so 

 as to make them understand it, is no easy matter, 

 because it embraces subjects which are entirely 

 above, and beyond their comprehension. To make 

 them understand analytical chemistry, natural his- 

 tory, theoretical and practical agriculture, requires 

 no small degree of knowledge and skill. To be 

 successful, the teacher should exemplify his in- 

 struction. He should be able to hold the plow, 

 to drive the team, to use the scythe, the rake, the 

 ax, the shovel and the hoe. There are a thousand 

 things to be learned, which can be learned only by 

 actual observation and example on the farm. 

 Scholars can readily do whatever they see their 

 teacher do, though they may not be able to under- 

 stand his lectures, or what is laid down in the text- 

 book. The way to teach agriculture to the young, 

 is by example, by showing the best methods of cul- 

 tivation, and how to do correctly, and in the best 

 manner possible, the various kinds of farm-work. 



I repeat, that I object to the study of agricul- 

 ture in our common schools ; first, because it 

 would injure the schools by diverting the attention 

 of the scholars from their necessary studies, and 

 greatly disqualify them for future usefulness ; sec- 

 ondly, because our teachers are not qualified to 

 teach it, and have no means of explaining it ; and 

 thirdly, because the scholars generally are not old 

 enough to understand it, and have no time to de- 

 vote to it, without neglecting their other studies. 



Warwick, June, 1862. John Goldsbury. 



BENEFITS OP THE ANGLE ■WORM. 



Though the angle worm yields a considerable 

 amount of food to the birds and fish that grace 

 the dinner-table, it is much more beneficial to man 

 as a fertilizer of the land. Subsisting on the 

 earth through which it burrows, with an occasion- 

 al meal from a decaying tuber or leaf, its pecula- 

 tions from the husbandman are of the smallest 

 nature ; whereas it lightens the earth's surface by 

 its burrowings, and thereby aids the spreading of 

 the roots of all cereals and bulbs ; and the bur- 

 rows also carry down water after heavy rains, that 

 but for them, would often gather in surface pools, 

 and thereby injure the crops; and they also ad- 

 mit the air to tlie soil to a depth which by natural 

 means it could not reach. The earth ejected by 

 them also tends to the improving of the soil ; and 

 instances are known whcrcl^y these droppings, or 

 "worm -casts," caused, in a few years, a considera- 

 ble increase to the depth as well as the quality of 

 the soil. ]Mr. Darwin, the naturalist, gives an ac- 

 count of a case of tiiis kind wliich he tested, and 

 from experiments ho clearly proved that, in an old 

 pasture, a layer of cinders and lime had been cov- 

 ei'ed witliin a few years, to the depth of an inch, 

 by the castings of worms. "On carefully exam- 

 ining," he also wrote, "between the blades of grass 

 in the fields above described, I found scarcely a 

 space of two inches square without a little heap 

 of cyiindi-ical castings of worms." A week or two 



