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III. — On Education an connected with Agriculture. By the Rev. 
J. L. BueuetON, Rector of West Buckland, Devon, and Pre- 
bendary of Exeter Cathedral. 
The subject of education has not hitherto been very popular with 
farmers, and seldom forms a topic of discussion at their meetings 
or in their journals. This has arisen partly from their instinctive 
feeling that education is a matter of books and study, while 
farming is a matter of life and practice, and that these are con- 
trary the one to the other ; but partly also is it due to the fact 
that education is a social question, and that no class of men are 
so sensitive on such matters as those who belong neither to the 
higher nor the lower, but to the intermediate ranks of society. 
But though good reasons may be given for avoiding the discus- 
sion, there are reasons even more urgent and practical for entering 
upon it. On the one hand, farming is becoming, not indeed 
less a matter of practice, but more than ever a matter of study ; 
and on the other, social questions are forced by the progress and 
pressure of society into a prominence which may be contrary to 
our tastes, but which neither duty nor interest can neglect. The 
time has come when the consideration of education as connected 
with agriculture will not be considered intrusive even in the 
special province of an agricultural journal. 
Antl whereas agriculture more than any other pursuit dis- 
tributes its followers into three distinct grades — the owners, the 
occupiers, the labourers, of the land — so does this distribution 
into a higher, middle, and lower class, form the most convenient 
basis for the treatment of the subject of education. By this 
threefold division it can best be mastered as an interesting matter 
of thought, and still more practically discussed as an important 
field for public action. This threefold division of those through 
whom agriculture, as a special pursuit, becomes connected with 
education, as a general principle, will be the connecting thought 
of the lollowing pages. But because so much has been done for 
the education of the higher and of the lower classes, and so much 
avowedly remains to be done for those who come between, the 
inquiries and suggestions 1 shall venture to make will have a 
special reference to the farmers, as forming a large and most 
important section of the English middle class. 
There are two questions which must have often occurred to 
those whose tastes or pursuits will have made them readers of an 
agricultural journal. One is, " What is the best education for a 
farmer? " The other, " What is. the best education for a farmer's 
