811 ^Agricultural Education. 
in connection with such studies as would best qualify them for 
the duties of a citizen, leaving out of view the useless study of 
Greek and Latin, which is usually forced upon them as soon as 
they enter the academy. During summer they could return home, 
and work on the farm, and test by actual experiment what they 
had learned during the winter. Thus the farm and the school 
Would be mutual aids. Their alternate changes of study and la- 
bor would have a tendency to keep their constitution and habits 
of industry good; and by the time they were twenty-one years of 
age, they would be likely to be intelligent, industrious farmers, 
and good citizens. It may be thought that we have not a supply 
of competent teachers, but let us make the demand. Offer suffi- 
cient pay, and they will be forthcoming. This course once 
adopted, it will spread itself over the whole state. It will contain 
within itself, a self-sustaining principle, and will be continuous 
and increasing, without any exertion or expense on the part of 
the state. On this subject. Gov. Wright, in his address to the 
State agricultural society last fall, said: 
" It is universally conceded that agriculture has shared but 
lightly in the fostering care and government patronage which have 
been liberally extended to commerce and manufactures, nor is it 
believed that additional public expenditure is necessary to enable 
the state to do all that can reasonably be required of it, to accom- 
plish this great object. Our educational funds are rich, and the 
colleges, academies, and common schools of the state, share libe- 
rally in the distributions from them, while a Normal school, for 
the education of teachers, instituted at the seat of government, is 
also mainly supported from these funds. These institutions pre- 
sent the organization through which perhaps more than through 
any independent channel, this instruction can be universally dis- 
seminated among the agricultural population of the state. The 
annual additions to the school district libraries may be made with, 
reference to this branch of education, and thus place within the 
reach of all, the discoveries as they progress, and the rules of hus- 
bandry deduced from them, as they shall be settled and given to 
the public from the pens of the competent professors engaged in 
pursuing the researches." 
Those who are educated have a decided advantage over those 
who are not. Those engaged in agriculture are a majority over 
those engaged in all other pursuits put together. There is no- 
thing in the occupation of the farmer which ought to place him 
below those engaged in other pursuits, except that they, as a class, 
have not generally been as well educated. Go into our legisla- 
tive halls, and although you may sometimes find a majority of 
farmers, still you will seldom find one of their number placed at 
the head of any important committee. If we wish our farmers to 
