THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



15 



do when they attain to manhood, they should 

 be (or a large majority of them) trained in 

 schools of agriculture, which the public voice 

 should compel the Legislature to establish. 



"Agricultural schools should be alike accessi- 

 ble to rich and poor, and in the vicinity of flour- 

 ishing towns, might, as you have suggested, to 

 a considerable extent, support themselves. To 

 the rich they would be scarcely less valuable 

 than to the poor; as the first would there be 

 taught how to improve and preserve his inheri- 

 tance, whilst the last would learn how to acquire 

 independence for himself and an inheritance for 

 his children. Many farmers are most anxious 

 to give their sons such an education ; and even 

 among the poorest and most ignorant, scarcely 

 one could be found who would not cheerfully 

 surrender the labor of his son for the advantage 

 of placing him in an agricultural school. A 

 very poor, but most respectable man applied to 

 me early this year to take his son, a stout youth 

 of sixteen, for five years, stating that he wished 

 to make him a farmer — not to expose him to, 

 the vices of a town life — that he had noihing 

 more to give him than he had already given, a 

 plain English education — and as he hoped, good 

 principles and good habits. It was not in my 

 power to take the youth, and especially because 

 I knew myself to be incompetent to teach him 

 what his father wished him to acquire. Now, 

 the labor of this son was worth something to 

 the father, (a feeble man) but he was most will- 1 

 ing and anxious to give that up, and even to, 

 permit him to labor on my farm with my ne- j 

 groes, for the advantage he supposed would be! 

 derived from my instruction. It was an over- 

 estimate of my qualifications — but serves to! 

 show the infinite importance to a large majority 

 of our people, of agricultural schools. 



" The press is the most powerful engine that 

 can be brought to bear upon this important sub- 

 ject. I rejoice that you have taken it up, and 

 hope that it will be pressed with your accus- 

 tomed zeal . I trust too, that it will 



foe taken up by the press universally. Half the 

 .devotion to this great cause, that the political 

 press bestows upon the party politics of the day, 

 would do more for the best interests of Virginia, 

 I verily believe, than anj' thing besides. Our 

 Society, there can be no doubt, will do its part. 



"This is not w r ritten for publication. I am 

 not qualified to discuss the subject in the public 

 prints, and therefore, do not wish to appear vain 

 enough to attempt it. Abler pens and more 

 distinguished names than mine must do the 

 work ; and it is time that work was in hand. — 

 Let the word be onward. 



Very respectfully, yours., 



Member Agricultural of* Horticultural Society of Henrico.''' 1 

 Richmond, Nov. 11, 1842. 

 To assist the press in doing the proper office, 



claimed from it by our correspondent, we take 

 leave to publish his own letter, though he warns 

 us it is not written for the public. He holds, 

 however, a strong pen — and gives us hard com- 

 mon sense — and his own production brings the 

 "powerful engine," of which he speaks,' to bear 

 at once " upon this important subject."— Editor a 



A deep and general interest in agricultural 

 improvement has lately been awakened in this 

 country. We begin to understand that from 

 this great art all others have their life and being, 

 and that nature and circumstances combine to 

 render its pursuit the most eligible lo the great 

 mass of our countrymen. That the art is in a 

 comparatively rude state, and that by a better 

 direction of the same labor, the total of its pro- 

 ducts might be greatly increased, is universally 

 admitted. Various plans have been devised for 

 the improvement and instruction of the agricul- 

 tural community, and it is upon this subject we 

 desire to express a few opinions peculiar, per- 

 haps, to ourselves, but in the soundness of which 

 we have the most unshaken faith. 



Education in this country is of too indefinite 

 a character, that is, it is not sufficiently directed 

 to particular pursuits. A boy is sent to school 

 from the time he is old enough to wear breeches, 

 until he is eighteen or twenty. He is taught to 

 read English, to write an indifferent hand, to 

 translate Latin and Greek, and being hurried 

 around the circle of the sciences, he is dismissed 

 upon the world, to get his living as he can ; 

 this may do well enough as a system of educa- 

 tion for the priviledged classes of England, from 

 whom we have borrowed it ; for those, who live 

 upon the labors of others, it may be sufficient to 

 induct them into those studies that please and 

 gratify, whilst they certainly elevate and dignify 

 the human mind ; but in this country, where 

 every man must work for his own living, some- 

 thing more is required. For all the practical 

 purposes of life, there is not a more ignorant nor 

 useless being, than nine out of ten of the young 

 gentlemen, who have graduated at our univer- 

 sities. Let us trace the effect of this system of 

 education in the active vocations of after life. — 

 Law and politics are the only pursuits in which 

 the talented youth finds his academical acquisi- 

 tions of any practical use, and if circumstances 

 deter from these, he is compelled, without know- 

 ing silk from satin, or unable, with all his learn- 

 in g, to keep a set of books, to become a merchant; 

 or, more unfortunate still, he is driven to the pro- 

 fession of a farmer, without being able to distin- 



