1863. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



23 



For the New England Fanner, i 

 KETROSPECTIVE NOTES. j 



Agriculture in Common Schools. — In the 

 November issue of this journal, we have as many 

 as five communications upon this single topic, as ] 

 may be seen by consulting the contents. It may ; 

 be reasonably inferred from this unusually large 

 number of articles upon one subject, in one single 

 issue of the Farmer (Monthly,) that there is a , 

 very general interest felt in the settlement of the 

 questions which have been raised in connection 

 wuth this topic. The fact that a considerable num- 

 ber of minds are having their attention directed : 

 towards such subjects as the best practicable em- 1 

 plojanent of the time our children usually pass in , 

 school ; the best adjustment of their studies ; the [ 

 elevation of the business of farming from a 

 thought-shunning following of tradition and rou- ' 

 tine, to a system of operations continually under- 

 going investigation and im])rovements ; the eleva- 

 tion of farmers as a class from clod-fated drudges, j 

 who can give no reason for doing as they do ex- 

 cept that their fathers or their neighbors have al- 1 

 ■ways done so, up to the rank of Men of Mind, \ 

 who direct all their operations by the lights de- j 

 rived from science and experience, and who can 

 always give most satisfactory reasons for every 

 item of their management ; — the fact, we repeat, 

 that a gi'eat many minds among the readers of the 

 N. E. Farmer are directing their attention to the ' 

 subjects above-named, and to others of a similar 

 nature, and are beginning to inquire what they 

 can do for their sons by giving them good oppor- ' 

 tunities for acquainting themselves with every de- 

 partment of knowledge from which light may be ' 

 gathered to guide, and improve the multifarious 

 operations of the farm, is a fact of most cheering 

 omen, and one that must be gratifying to the | 

 heart of every one who is made cognizant of it, if : 

 possessed in any fair degree of a patriotic or phil- 1 

 authropic, or reformatory and progress-loving I 

 spirit. j 



From this we may justly augur many beneficial j 

 results. As one of these results we may ex])ect ■ 

 that the conviction will become established in a ' 

 great man}' minds that the business of farming ! 

 can be elucidated and improved by contributions 

 from a knowledge of geology, chemistry, botany, 

 animal and vegetable physiology, natural and me- ! 

 chanical philosophy, meteorology, and other phys- 

 ical sciences, and that the most efficient method 

 of securing aid from all these sciences is to make 

 the minds of our youth acquainted with their 1 

 rudiments and more practical truths, while yet 

 these minds are fresh and docile, and eagoj-ly in ; 

 quest of information as to the facts and phenomena | 

 of nature, and of explanations of these facts and 

 phenomena. This conviction once firmly estab- 

 lished in the minds of parents will lead to benefi- 

 cial changes in the education of the rising genera- 

 tion, and, through these changes, to an improved 

 condition of farmers and of farming, as also of all 

 the other business and employments of human 

 life. 



Considerations such as the above lead us to 

 hope that the best minds in New England, and in ' 

 other districts of our country visited by the N. E. j 

 Farmer, Avill become interested in the discussions 

 just inaugurated as to school education, studies, 

 and employments, and rs to the best methods of j 



preparing the young, who are likely to become the 

 agriculturists of the next generation, for becoming 

 a more intelligent, a more efficient, a Ijetter in- 

 formed, and a more respected and influential class 

 in society, than their fathers or any who have pre- 

 ceded them. 



In looking back over the several communica- 

 tions which have so far appeared in the columns 

 of the Farmer, a discriminating observer would 

 probably perceive that the remarks which have 

 been made were rather than otherwise such as 

 might be appropriate enough if addressed to an 

 assembly of school officers or of a legislature 

 gathered together to determine by legislative au- 

 thority Avhether or no agriculture might be intro- 

 duced into the schools of their State, or those un- 

 der their jurisdiction. Now as no such assembly 

 for such a purpose is ever likely to be convened, 

 it seems that for the future the remarks of those 

 who feel interested in agriculture and school 

 studies would assume a form at once more practi- 

 cally useful, and more to the point, if they were 

 directed towai'ds the determination of a specific 

 case, such as may really occur in connection with 

 the general topic. 



It would be exceedingly interesting to the writer, 

 and doubtless to many othei::, to be informed as 

 to the particulars of any case which has actually 

 occurred, in which there was opposition ofi"ered to 

 the introduction of this study into any common 

 school. Meanwhile, until we shall have the de- 

 tails as to the actual introduction of agriculture as 

 a study in some existing school, or the details as 

 to an attempt to introduce it, with the success or 

 failure of such attempt, we would suggest as a 

 case most likely to occur, and as one. to which 

 writers might usefully direct their remarks, one 

 substantially as follows : In a district of the State 



of , some resident of the same, having one 



: or two boys old enough to help him on the farm, 

 I and intending to fit them for farmers, thinks they 

 I might study some agricultural text-book or other 

 j manual with more interest at school, in company 

 j with some other boys of their own age, than they 

 ■ would be likely to do solitary and alone at home. 

 ' He, therefore, goes to some other farmers, as also 

 ! perhaps to a farmer's widow, having boys from 

 fourteen to eighteen years of age, and makes 

 known his plan. They like it, and agree to join 

 ! him. He then goes to the teacher to ascertain his 

 mind as to the matter, and finding him acquainted 

 with farm operations and farm literature, being a 

 farmer's son, and perfectly willing to take charge 

 I of a class in agriculture, he calls a meeting of the 

 district to allow him the opportunity of hearing 

 ; objections, if any, and of answering them, or, in a 

 I word, of vindicating and defending the innovation 

 ; he ])roposes to introduce. Now, here is a case 

 such as seems the most likely to occur of any case 

 that we can think of; and now, if those who may 

 write on this subject would make their remarks 

 applicable to such a case as this, it seems that they 

 would be more practically useful, and more to the 

 point, than if of a more general nature, or having 

 no specific case of actual or probable occurrence 

 in view. Let those who may feel disposed to ob- 

 ject to the introduction of agriculture as a study 

 in schools, write out the objections they would 

 make to the plan of those who favored it in the 

 case we have just sketched, or any similar one, 

 and they may find that what they supposed of 



