SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR 
25P 
classics. By no means. He is an ill-tempered devil, 
who, having himself drank from the Pierian spring, would 
debar others from slaking their thirst from the same crys- 
tal waters. But the classics, while they are indispens- 
able to professional life, are the accomplishments of gener- 
al education. They are the capital which gracefully 
crowns the attic column. They are the key which un- 
lock the portals, giving admission into the “High com- 
munion of scholars.” They are the polish which gives a 
beauteous lustre to improved mind. And as such, wher- 
ever time and means allow, they should be studied with 
a just reference to the future of the student. 
Avery small proportion of the youth passing through a 
course of academic or collegiate education permanently 
devote themselves to professional life. A few years of 
their earlier manhood may be occupied by a profession, i 
but finding the many of wealth or distinction pre- occu- 
pied by others, the profession is abandoned and another 
pursuit is adopted. 
A very large number of our students become planters or 
farmers. The planter’a son passes from the Rostrum to 
the cotton field. If he were destined for the ministry, he 
would study three years at a Theological Seminary. If 
he were designed for the bar, he would pursue his legal 
• studies either in the office of some distinguished lawyer 
or at a law school. If it were his intention to become a 
physician, he would attend the lectures, and if his means 
allowed he would walk the hospitals at Dublin or Paris 
But as he is to be a mere planier or farmer^ no novitiate 
is deemed necessary. His Latin and Greek, and Mathe- 
matics and Belles Lettres are sufficient preparation for the 
management of negroes, the composition of manures and 
the growth of stock, grain and cotton. 
The embarrassments of young men who inherit planting 
estates are sometimes painful from want of proper prepar- 
ation. K graduate of one of our collegiate institutions en- 
ters upon the management of his estate If he wishes to 
arrange the books of the estate, he must call in a book- 
keeper. If an unknown insect is destroying his crops, he 
must consult an Entomologist. If he wishes to learn the 
name and habits of a new plant, he must obtain the infor- 
mation from a Botanist. If he wishes to determine the 
name of a variety ol fruit new to him, he must enquire of a 
Pomologist. If he wishes to extend a cherished variety 
by grafting, he must send for a Nurseryman, If he 
wishes to ascertain the deficiency in an unfruitful part of 
his soil, he must submit a specimen to a Chemist, If he 
wishes to know the extent of a field, he must employ a 
surveyor. If he wishes to run a level for embankment or 
irrigation, he must employ an Engineer. He finds him- 
self at a loss in almost every part of the large interest he 
is called upon to manage and control. 
The education of every young man should be materially 
modified by the occupation for which he is designed. If 
he is to be a planter, his education should be directed 
chiefly to those studies a knowledge of which will fit him 
for his calling. 
It may be s5id that the Georgia University proposes to 
do this through the Terrell Agricultural Professorship, 
We fear that this valuable bequest, even though sustained 
by the acknowledged ability of the present Professor, will 
fail to answer the end proposed by the noble gentleman, 
whose memory will ever be cherished in Georgia, We 
very much doubt, if it be possible to unite at this day and 
\ at the same point a full course of classical and Agricul- 
tural education. And for this reason, our young men 
seem to have nut little idea of distinction, save through 
the power of oratory, or of eloquent composition. Their 
classic studies are, for the most part, the orations, and 
poems of antiquity. The Societies foster the general ten- 
dency of the institution. The natural sciences are fre- 
quently undervalued. In short, tlfh elements of study and 
character, which go to make a painstaking and successful 
planter, are generally considered tame, spiritless and*- 
ignoble. 
We conceive that the difficulty can be easily removedi* 
The original scheme of education in Georgia is most ad- 
mirable, We believe that the honor of its suggestion and 
elaboration is chiefly due to Gen. James Jackson. That 
original plan confines the University to no one particular 
place. The University includes the whole system of edu- 
cation, as patronized and supported by the State. In this ' 
plan, the University supplies to any practical and valu^ 
able scheme in its President, who is a Regent of Educa- ' 
lion, and to whose supervision the whole subject is com- 
mitted. With the Collegiate Institutions at Athens^ ai£- 
Agricultural and Industrial School might be established 
at another point, a Law School at another, and a Medical ' 
School at another — all under the general supervision cf 
the President and Trustees of the University. 
The limits of this paper will not allow a sketch of the 
course of study which might be pursued at the Agrieu-1- 
tural Department of the University, Should the subject ' 
prove to be one ofinterest, such a sketch, based upon the 
systems pursued in the best European schools, will be p?-s- - 
pared. 
If the State can be induced to establish an Experimental' 
Farm, worked by negroes, which would also be the siia: 
of its Agricultural Museum and Fair, this point should be"’ 
the location of one of the agricultural schools. The ex- 
pense of education here might be high, as it would involve- 
continued outlay. Planters would not hesitate to meet- 
this expense, for the advantages would be unusually great. 
In the absence of similar Institutions in our country v/e 
have been compelled to advise some of our 'ft:iends to send 
their sons to Grignon, in France, which advice has bees- 
followed. 
There is another form of Agricultural and Industrial 
school which is still more needed than one of the kind 
suggested. That is an Institution designed especially to 
supply us with a race of educated overseers and mecl^B- 
ics and common school teachers. Parts of the South suf- 
fer almost as much from absenteeism as Ireland. In the- 
absence of the proprietors, large gangs of negroes, immor- 
tal beings, are sometimes committed to the almost sole- 
management of ignorant men whose minds are not only 
dark, but whose moral sense has never felt the power of 
elevating Association, The interests of the planter sufiter 
— the cause of agriculture suffers. When the planter lives - 
on his plantation, the overseer is “a third estate” v/hich k 
is often very difficult to manage without detriment. The. 
proprietor fears to undertake an improvement, as he k 
practically ignorant, and it is often the case that an over- - 
seer, undervaluing it as an item of book farming, will as- 
suredly fail to carry it out, even if he have the necessary^, 
intelligence. 
Every planter will at once feel the advantage which it' 
would be to him if, when he wanted a young mari to 
manage his affairs, there were an Institution to whos& 
officers he might write, state the character needed, a»d 
find his necessities promptly supplied. The overseess of^- 
the country are a class. They form an important into- - 
est. They correspond to the bailiffs or land stewards of 
England — men thoroughly educated as to all that apper- 
tains to their business. If it were not for these mea- whiv" 
unite “Science with Practice,” the prodigious advance of 
English Agriculture would be at once arrested. It is to 
US at the South a measure of the highest interest in oar 
social economy to elevate this important class of persona 
We are compelled to deal hastily with this interesting:, 
topic. It is hoped that its suggestion will awaken attesiv- 
tion. 
We need superior facilities of education to be plac*^ 
within the reach of those poor young men who design io-' 
become mechanics. The time was, when we spoke of a. 
mechanic, that we thought only of a man who could shcxJi' 
