412 AGRICULTURE. 



influence of the agricultural class in this country. The j^ant that 

 tills the soil is gradually wakening into conscious activity ; he per- 

 ceives his own resources ; he begins to feel that upon his shouldeia 

 rests the state ; that from his labor come the material forces that 

 feed the national strength; that from his loins are largely drawn 

 the. strong men that give force and stability to great impulses and 

 sound institutions in republican America. 



Is it to be supposed that with this newly sivakening conscious- 

 ness of the meaning and value of his life, the farmer — the owner of 

 the soil in America— is not to seize any advantages to develope his 

 best faculties ? Does any thinking man believe that such a class 

 will continue to plough and delve in an ignorant routine, in an age 

 when men force steam to almost annihilate space and lightning to 

 outrun time ? 



And this brings us at once to the great topic of the day, with 

 the farmer — agricultural schools. 



Now, that it is confidently believed that we are to have • great 

 agricultural school in the State of New- York — a school whicll will 

 probably be the prototype of many in the other States — some diver- 

 sity of opinion exists as to the charaiCter of that School. 



" Let it be a school for practical farming; — a school in which 

 farmers' sons shall be taught h6w to plough and mow, and ' make 

 both 6i}ds meet,' and show farmers how^ they can make money," 

 says one. 



" Give us a school in which the science of agriculture shall be 

 taught, where the farmer's son shall be ibade a good chemist, a 

 good mathematician, a good naturalist,— -yes, and even taught 

 Greek and Latin, eta, so that he shall be as well educated as any 

 gentleman's son," says the second. 



"A farm school ought to be able to support itself, or it is worth 

 nothing," says a third. 



" It should be liberally endowed by the State, so as to secure 

 the best talent in the country, or it will be the nest of charlatans," 

 says a fourth. 



" It shcaild be a model farm,' where only the best practice and 

 the most pi-ofitable modes of cultivation should be seen," says a 

 fifth. ^ ' 



