THE bOUTIIERN PLANTER. 91 



a. Manufacture; b. Saving ; c. Ap- 

 plication. 



16. Care of live stock. 



a. Soiling; b. Stabling; c. Grazing; 

 d. Housing ; e. Insects ; /. Castrat- 

 ing, Spaying; g. Breaking to gear. 



17.. Experiments. 



a. on crops ; b. cattle ; c. culture, 

 how made to be useful. 



18. Construction of ditches. 



a. open; b. covered; c. hill-side. 



19. Dairy. 



a. Butter; b. Cheese, &c. 



20. Household operation. 



a. Slaughtering and curing of meats; 



b. Culinary art. 



21. Fuel. 



a. kinds ; b. collection ; c. care of ; 

 d. wood-houses. 



22. Comparative value of foods for rais- 

 ing and fattening cattle. 



23. Horticulture. 



a. Culinary ; b. Ornamental. 



24. Orchard. 



a. Fruit ; b. Cider ; c. Vinegar ; d. 



Propagation of trees. 



1. Budding; 2. Grafting; 3. Lay- 

 ering; 4. Pruning. 



25. Vineyards, fruit and wines. 



26. Grasses — Artificial, natural, their 

 value as improvers, and grazing. 



27. Root crops. 



28. Comparative value of work brutes — 

 horses, mules, oxen. 



29. Farm yards— 1. Form ; 2. Size ; 3. 

 Littering. 



30. Hay cutting, curing, stacking, bal- 

 ing. 



31. Green crops for manure. 



32. Marling, liming-expense and profit. 



33. Domestic manufactures. 



34. Staple crops of States south of Vir- 

 ginia — sugar, cotton, rice. 



35. Preservation of timbers 



a. Painting; b. Charring; c. Kya- 

 nizing. 



36. Surveying — size of fields, as com- 

 pared with form. 



37. Poultry. 



38. Bees. 



39. Ice Houses. 



.» IV. N. B. — To the course of instruc- 

 tion by lecture, it will be desirable to add 

 as soon as practicable, an experimental 

 Farm, to be under the care of a steward 

 appointed by. the Professor of Agriculture. 



The committee, I hope, will excuse me 

 for saying that their synopsis is imperfect. 



It by no means includes all that should be 

 embraced in a course of agricultural edu- 

 cation ; the classification of the subjects 

 is artificial and unscientific ; some topics 

 are placed under one head which ought to 

 be under a different one ; and some are 

 included which might very well be omitted 

 altogether. I suppose it was hastily pre- 

 pared to form the basis of their conference 

 with the authorities of the University, and 

 for that purpose it does very well. I in- 

 troduce it to show how much was contem- 

 plated by our committee and the Visitors 

 of the University when they conferred to- 

 gether about agricultural education, and to 

 ask you if this does not look like doing 

 something? The committee express their 

 belief that all this can be accomplished if 

 our Society will establish a single Profes- 

 sorship at the University. If it can, and 

 I for one, believe it can, then never before 

 was so much learning promised for so lit- 

 tle money. Generally speaking, cheap 

 learning is of little value, because its 

 cheapness arises from the superficial cha- 

 racter of it. But it is not so here. Those 

 who are acquainted with the University 

 know that learning got there is not super- 

 ficial. It is as far from being so, as colle- 

 giate learning can be. The daily ques- 

 tions in the class rooms, and the rigid ex- 

 aminations for degrees prevent it being 

 superficial. The same system of instruc- 

 tion would be adopted in the school of 

 agriculture, which has been pursued in the 

 other schools, and with the same effects. 

 I heard a very distinguished lawyer of 

 Virginia say, a short time ago, that he had 

 known a graduate to come from the law- 

 school of the University fully prepared to 

 plead in the Appellate Courts of the State. 

 It has been said by some of the Professors 

 of medical colleges in the large cities, that 

 the medical school of the University is the 

 best preparatory school of medicine in the 

 United States. The same system of in- 

 struction in a school of agriculture would 

 produce the same results — our young men 

 would be thoroughly prepared for farming, 

 as far as that preparation depends on 

 knowledge ; and, say what we may, in 

 farming, as much as in any other business 

 of life, knowledge is power. 



Would our sons, taught in such a school 



of agriculture, come home from college 



farmers ? I answer, no. But I say they 

 would be prepared to become farmers by a 

 little practice, they ^ T ould be in a condition 



