200 
AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. 
ing, if no department of agricultural knowledge is neglected, the 
best results must inevitably follow. 
One paragraph we cannot refrain from quoting at length from 
Mr. Duppa. “ Besides knowledge, skill in various mechanical arts 
ought also to be acquired. Although it may not be necessary for 
the farmer in after-life to make use of his own hands as a carpenter 
or a smith, yet for the purpose of forming a just estimate of the 
character of the work done for him he must have some skill in these 
matters. A person having such skill will never submit to slo- 
venly carpentering, and his horses will never be lamed by a clumsy 
and ignorant smith. Many a long winter’s evening, which he now 
spends in sleeping by the fireside, will then be profitably occu- 
pied, and fences and buildings which a few nails would preserve 
will not so often be seen falling into ruins. The isolated situa- 
tion in which many farmers live, makes it necessary that they 
should themselves have skill in many things. Besides, there is 
a positive pleasure in seeing the neatness and efficiency of a place 
supported by, or contributed to, "by one’s own handy-work. Added 
to this, the fact of farmers being well acquainted with the manner 
in which work of the above description ought to be done, would 
operate directly on the persons engaged in these employments. 
“ The young farmer will be able to perform with his own hands 
all the operations of husbandry — he will be a handy, active, skilful 
person. He should be able to take the shafts of the plough from 
the ploughman, and say, ‘ This is the way to do it and if he him- 
self can perform, and has performed, a good day’s work, he will 
know what a day’s work means, and not allow himself to be plun- 
dered by idlers.” 
The annual expense of an education like this, the earnings and 
labour of the pupils being taken into consideration, Mr. Duppa 
calculates at about £25 per annum; and the necessary outlay 
for the purchase of eight or ten acres of land, and the erection 
and fitting up, &c. of suitable buildings, adjoining the property 
of some nobleman or gentleman, who would let to them 250 or 
300 or more acres of land on a long lease, he estimates at about 
£10,000, which he would raise by shares of £25 each, as a loan, 
upon which interest should be paid. 
