1863. 



XEW EXGLAXl) FARMER. 



165 



exists an equal doubt whether the youtif; farmer 

 could afford to attend it, even if its tuition were 

 free ! Certainly, its teachings must be very far 

 beyond anythinjf on our ordinary, practical farms, 

 to expect much encouragement. 



But, perhaps only general principles are to be 

 given. Very well, llere is a young man who 

 wishes to become a machinist. He is urged to at- 

 tend this college, and here he is instructed in the 

 rudiments of his intended calling, perhaps with 

 som.e doubtful collateral branches. He spends 

 three or four years here, paying his board at least, 

 though earning nothing. \Vlien he graduates he 

 is not a machinist, and if he intends to become 

 one, he has only to go and learn the details and 

 practice of the business ! So with the intended 

 farmer, the carpenter, .^-c. 



Mr. Emerson is a retired teacher, not a farmer. 

 A former is a man who gets his living (or attempts 

 to) by tilling the soil. The ideas of Mr. E. are 

 on a grand scale, and he means well for the farm- 

 er and the State. Like most scholars and scien- 

 tific men, he seems to think that everything must 

 be scholastically taught, and every man put 

 through some great institution of learning to be 

 worth anything — seeming to forget how wortliless, 

 in the great battle of life, many are who are thus 

 pressed through, even with ordinary honors. Al- 

 though more than fifty per cent., probably, of the ] 

 money expended in education is lost, still, on the 

 right person it is effective ; and although we can- 1 

 not raise wheat without chaff, we think that if' 

 these gentlemen would make practical farmers, 

 they must give them less of the odor of '"learned 

 professors" and more of that of the soil. Some I 

 teachers are such enthusiasts in education — have j 

 80 scientific a way of doing simple things — that | 

 they deserve to be "showed up" by Dickens in his 1 

 best style. Like Mrs. Jellyby, they have a "mis- 1 

 eion ;" and this would seem to be to teach simple 

 rustics how to saw and split wood, ])ump, turn a 

 grindstone, pitch hay, or shovel manure ! True, 

 there is a best way of doing these things ; but 

 every man's own faculty is his best and ready in- 

 structor. True is it, also, 



"That those who think must govern those who toil." 

 Yet it would be a painful state of afi'airs, if persons 

 could know nothing save that which some expe- 

 rienced teacher forced by rule into them. Intui- 

 tion is the first and most general instructor, 

 though without much reputation. 



In the matter of agricultural education, for the 

 past few years its friends have sought to get the 

 power from the Legislature to introduce some 

 good manual upon the suljject into our common 

 schools. They said they did not want a college, 

 for that would only make sublimated "gentlemen 

 farmers." Its rudiments, they said, should be 

 taught in the district school, so that every young 

 lad desiring to become a farmer could study the 

 subject in his own neighborhood, and without ex- 

 tra ex])ense. That jxtwer hufi iinir been f/rcoitcdbi/ 

 the Le(jU'laiHre, and placed in tlie hands of the va- 

 rious school committees of the towns. I have 

 not, however, heard of a single ])upil wlio has com- 

 menced the study. Indeed, in the rural districts 

 there is great apathy on the subject. The farmers 

 of the State did not i)etition for the power, and it 

 is to be apprehended that they will not avail them- 

 selves of its privileges. 



Now that Congress has made a grant of land 



to endow an industrial school in each State, our 

 excellent Governor has recommeiidetl the renewed 

 consideration of the .subject (jf agricultural educa- 

 tion, and hopes the Sl.iie will avail iuwlf of the 

 grant. Yet the working farmers seim to ft-el Jio 

 interest in the matter ; lliey recognize nu want 

 that the scliool can supply, whatever their wnuts 

 may lie. It will not give them capital or manure, 

 nor can it command the keys of the heavens, or 

 ma.ster the sul)jects of meteorology and electrici- 

 ty, to whose mercy farmers are s«. subjecti il. Are 

 there important experiments made in the art, they 

 know them in a few months from everv part of 

 the civilized globe. Would a college be'lilvelv to 

 add anything new or valuable? And wlierever 

 situated, would its experiments in raising tro|)H l>e 

 uniform each year, or valuable in other luculities? 

 Would not each graduate, when he came to liis 

 farm, be obliged to elucidate new principles nuited 

 to that farm itself? If .so, he would have si)cnt 

 his time and money for nothing. 



There will be so many calls for the public money 

 hereafter, tluit we should be careful that none is 

 spent which is not absolutely necessary. Hence I 

 submit that this grant (could it be so li.sed,) would 

 be much better employed in paying the public 

 debt, or endowing an a.sylum for the care and sup- 

 port of maimed soldiers, than in attempting to 

 teach what is well known in agricidture, or in mul- 

 tiplying theories, of which we have too many al- 

 ready. 



In this contemplated college, the superinten- 

 dence of the management of fertilizers and the 

 raising of croj)s, would probably l)e in the hands 

 of the Professor of Chemistry, instead of some 

 sunburnt farmer of years of practical experience. 

 Hear what Prof. Voki.cki;k lately said iK-fore the 

 Royal .^trritultural Society of England. This gen- 

 tleman is himself Professor of Chemistry in the 

 Cirencester .Agricultural College : "Ciiemistrj' 

 should never be made the direct guide to the ag- 

 riculturist. Science is, after all, only the syste- 

 matic arrangement of well-authenticated facts, and 

 the rising generation should be taught its general 

 principles. But many |)rofessors of chemistry have 

 overestimated their own powers, and instead of 

 explaining the experience of practical men, they 

 set themselves up as guides to the farmers ; they 

 have overestimited the powers of the new science, 

 and in consequence stumbled." 



In Great Britain, agricultural schools are the 

 appendages of the landed aristocracy. Owing to 

 the wealth and exalted position of the owners of 

 the soil there, agriculture is more faiihionaMe, and 

 more systematic, perhaps, than here ; and although 

 in .Vmerica we do not farm it so highly, no one can 

 say — while we feed ourselves and assist in sup- 

 plying with food half the civilized world, besides 

 giving ICurope as many hints as she does us — that 

 our agriculture is a failure. It subserves its pur- 

 pose, and always will, whether or not we have the 

 doubtful aid of agricultural colleges. Compare 

 the condition of the rural population of I'.ngbnd 

 and the Continent with our own, and then ask 

 whether we need the influence of their institu- 

 tions, or they of ours ! 



If we had a public fund, whereby wo could in- 

 stitute a .series of experiments in the r.iising of 

 crops, it might be desiraljle. Our farmers, liow- 

 ever, are now annually making various triaU in 

 the ajiplicalion of manures, under the direction 



