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Education as connected with Agriculture. 
son ? " And though these questions are respectively suggested 
by different circumstances, yet they are sufficiently related to 
admit of discussion in the same paper. 
Farmers are not necessarily or in fact all j the sons of farmers, 
still less are all the sons of farmers intended to be farmers. " The 
best education for a farmer " presupposes nothing as to the class 
of life from which a pupil comes. " The best education for a 
larmer's son" assumes nothing as to his ultimate destination. In 
the former case, the end absolutely decides the means to be 
employed : in the latter the means may limit, but do not control 
the selection of ends. 
It would, therefore, be quite possible to discuss either of these 
questions without reference to the other. And either would of 
itself deserve the attention of all who take an interest in agricul- 
tural life. But as the two subjects of general and special educa- 
tion, though distinct, have yet a mutual interdependence and can 
best be considered simultaneously, I will ask my readers to bear 
them both in mind. 
In order to do so the more easily, let them bring to their minds 
the common case of a farmer with a large family, who desires one 
at least of his sons to follow his own pursuits, others to adopt 
some of the various openings of life to which education furnishes 
the approach. Only let it be remembered that as the English 
farmer represents one of the largest sections of our national 
society — in some places touching, by his share in actual labour, 
the operative class, in others joining and gladly Avelcomed among 
the honourable company of gentlemen — so the education of a 
farmer's son admits of a wide latitude of standard. If, however, 
we assume as an average English farmer, or at least as a speci- 
men sufficiently illustrative for our purpose, one who occupies 
with sufficient capital from 300 to 500 acres, and who would 
wish his sons to earn incomes not under 100/. a year, we may 
I think roughly estimate the cost of the education that would suit 
such a parent's requirements. 
We may consider the question of the relative advantages and 
faults of public and private education to have been sufficiently 
solved by the experience of the higher classes. Their verdict 
has unmistakeably been in favour of public education as the rule, 
allowing great exceptional value to private education in particular 
cases, and as preparatory or supplementary to the public schools. 
The broad difference between a public and private school is that 
the former is not, but the latter is the property of the master who 
conducts it. A purely public school is one the whole property 
of which is entrusted to disinterested guardians, with or without 
local and personal preference and limitations. But between this 
