198 
AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. 
every labour of the farm is performed under the superintendence 
of the head farmer, or of a monitor. Each one is occasionally 
employed at different ploughs, and is taught how to settle the 
plough-irons for every soil and work. He is also made practically 
acquainted with the use and management of every implement used 
in husbandry. He is not designed always to follow the plough or 
to harrow; but he is prepared, by his own experience, to perceive, 
at a glance, whether the work upon his own farm is well or ill 
done. 
The soil is mostly a thin retentive clay, on a micacious subsoil, 
and yielding but small produce compared with the labour and skill 
bestowed upon it. These circumstances occasion a greater ex- 
pense than if the soil had been more grateful in its returns ; but 
every field now affords a practical lesson as to the mode of draining 
and manuring adopted, and their influence on the crops that have 
succeeded. 
A nursery of forest trees has now sprung up, and partially en- 
gage the care and attention of the pupils. 
The garden, which is both useful and ornamental, will by its 
system and neatness afford some valuable lessons, and induce the 
pupils hereafter to adopt, from principle, a neater, and more cre- 
ditable, and more profitable management than is often seen in this 
interesting portion of the farmer’s establishment. 
A sufficient number of stock, of different breeds, are kept on the 
farm, which give occasion for many practical lectures on this mate- 
rial division of the farmer’s property. Here science and practice 
will beneficially unite, and the pupil will never forget the illustrations 
he has had of the points of a good or a bad — a hardy or a delicate 
— a profitable or an unthrifty breed ; and the means by which the 
good qualities may be preserved or increased and the indifferent 
ones neutralized or changed. The whole routine of grazing and of 
stall-feeding — of the manufacture of butter and of cheese, and of 
the most successful management of sheep and of pigs, will be 
experimentally taught. 
Could not all this be learned at home ! No ! The youth cannot 
forget that he is at home, and therefore he is not so diligent or so 
systematic in his studies ; nor will the father superintend, or, 
