1852.] THE PHILADELPHIA FLORIST. 113 



msw — *sr*e 



\!9 details. Youth is the most favorable time for making impressions j (^ 



a and 11 these Debased upon just and proper principles, time will not 

 / efface but stre?igthen them. It is my firm conviction that a pupil thus 

 educated will, when he enters upon the busy scene of farming life, 

 either on his own or on another's account, follow out the system re- 

 commended when at school,* and after he has proved and experienced 

 its superiority above others he will, both by precept and example, 

 endeavor to extend it. 



The views of Dr. Anderson, chemist to the Highland nnd Agricul- 

 tural Society of Scotland, as contained in a lecture recently delivered 

 by him on agricultural chemistry, are well worthy of notice. He 

 says — when speaking of the progress of Scottish agriculture — 



** The means which, at the present time, I look upon as the most 

 important, and best adapted to this end, is the extension and improve- 

 ment of agricultural education." And again, he says — "What t look 

 to is not school education, but something superadded to it; in fact, to 

 a professional education which shall instruct the young farmer in the 

 principles of his art and their application to practice. The introduc- 

 tion, in short, of a regular and systematic course of study, which 

 every farmer should be made to go through, in order to fit him for 

 the duties of his profession. The necessity for such a systematic 

 course of education has long been admitted, but it is remarkable that 

 in Sco'land, where agriculture has been so l'on£ in an advanced state, 

 we are more backward in this respect than any other country. In 

 every other European country, the governments have done everything 

 in their power to encourage agricultural education, except in Scot- 

 land and England and in the latter division of the empire, private en- 

 terprise has done the same. It is only Sr-otland which is still without 

 regular educational establishments for the instruction of farmers." 

 Still further, he adds — 



11 Many of my audience are probably aware that a movement has 

 recently be^n made, by the educational committee of the General 

 Assembly, for introducing a system of instruction in the elements of 

 agriculture into the parish schools. That movement, which has arisen 

 out of the condition of the Highlands, and the absolute necessity for 

 introducing a new system of cultivation in the small crofts there, I 

 look upon as an important step in the right direction • but it does not 

 by any means fulfil all that I desire. It provides merely for the in- 

 struction of the peasant cultivators, and must be considered only as a 

 part of any general system of agricultural education," He then goes 

 on to say, that there should be established in Scotland a great agri- 

 cultural institution, or college, for the professional instruction of 

 those who are to occupy the large farms of the country.* 



On the whole, it is evident that Doctor Anderson looks upon the 

 introduction of agricultural education as the principal means by 

 which to advance the agriculture of even the bes-t cultivated coun- 

 try, perhaps, in the world ; and why should there be any objections 

 raised to its general introduction into, perhaps, one of the worsts 



I ^ 



North British Agriculturist of 21st January, 18.32. 



[TO BE CONTINUED.] CfA 



15 



