AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES IN ENGLAND. 707 
ciples by which they are governed that we are to ascribe 
those extraordinary results which of late have been produced 
by scientific farming. It is, I say, to the knowledge diffused 
by a Liebig, a Kane, a Davy, and other men of mark — who 
have dived into the secrets of nature, and turned them, in 
a manner, inside out — that agriculture has attained that 
eminence we now witness. It may be fairly questioned 
whether there be any branch of science which is not, in one 
way or other, beneficially applicable to agriculture. 
This question is much better understood than formerly, 
even by the less enlightened farmers — those of the old school, 
if there be any such left. They begin to see that those of 
their neighbours who have paid the most attention to it pro- 
duce the best heads of cattle, and the heaviest crops of corn, 
hay, and roots. I therefore have a right to presume that the 
mind of the agricultural public is prepared for taking a 
decided step in this matter, by being convinced of its im- 
portance, and that they only require some leading man in 
- their own community to set them going. With this con- 
viction, I shall endeavour to point out some of those desi- 
derata which a course of agricultural academic education 
should embrace. 
I take it for granted that the pupil who would enter the 
college will be previously well versed in the usual branches 
of a common English education, with a knowledge of the 
rudiments of the mathematics and mensuration, both of 
which will be essential to the practical application of most 
of the other sciences. The academical course of a student, 
in the proposed college, ought to embrace geology, mechanics, 
hydraulics, pneumatics, botany, veterinary medicine and 
surgery, and, above all, chemistry, which should constitute 
the alpha and omega of the student’s acquirements. The 
practical use of the steam-engine should be combined with a 
knowledge of all its parts, so as to be able to superintend 
its use upon a farm, if necessary. Certainly the time is fast 
approaching when the steam of the boiler will supersede the 
sweat of the horse or man ; when the labour of a farm will 
be performed by mechanical, instead of human or brute 
power ; and when the efforts of these latter, relieved from 
the severest and most onerous of their toil, will be profitably 
employed, under scientific direction, in imparting, in various 
ways,additionalfertility to the lands nowcultivated,and in sub- 
duing the sterility of those hitherto considered unprofitable. 
But let us look a little more closely into these proposed 
scientific acquisitions of a young farmer, and see how they 
bear upon his future profession. For this purpose I shall 
