260 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
a horse, or lay a plow, or dress a piank, or frame a house. 
And it was supposed that education would be of little 
service to him. But how changed is now our estimate cf 
the position of a mechanic. “Science has put on the 
leather apron” and strikes with the hammer. Our steam- 
ships, railroads, mines, foundries and machine shops re- 
quire not only dexterity in the use of tools, but inventive, 
executive and financial ability. The person who can 
manage the affairs of one of the huge establishments to 
which these industries give rise, is qualified to manage 
affairs of State, let he must commence with his^ appren- 
ticeship, and an educated apprenticeship is indispensable 
to ulterior and extended success. iHs the possibility of 
these large operations requiring varied and cultivated 
nieut.-.l power, which has changed the aspect of mechani 
cal pursuits. 
We need, also, a provision for the education of poor 
young men as teachers of our common schools. If the 
State could build “the, brick school house” in every 
militia district, and if scholars waited at their doors for 
admission, we have not the teachers in sufficient numbers. 
Of those who offer as teachers, a great number are shame- 
fully disqualified. }f the subject were not too grave for 
ridicule, some of the richest scenes of comedy weuld be 
offie’red in a number of the examinations before the School 
Committees of the counties. 
There is a gap between the common school and a com- 
plete business education which the poor boy cannot fill. 
Our cities offer an exception — we are speaking of the 
country at large. When the poor boy has learned all 
that is taught in the country, he must stop in the- requi- 
sition of knowledge through an instructor. He cannot go 
to College — it is too expensive and there is no other op- 
portunity of a higher education besides that which the 
College affords. Whatever be his aspirations, he m.ust 
rest in his ignorance. 
If the State would endow an Institution, say in each Ju- 
dicial Circuit, each of which should be part of the Uni- 
versity — if each of these institutions were provided with 
a farm and v/orkshops — if no pupil were admitted under 
16 years of age, so that his labor would be valuable — if no 
pupil were retained whose labor on the farm or in the 
shop were not equivalent at least for his board, leaving 
his tuition to be paid from the funds of the Institution, 
then education would be within the reach of multitudes 
of the poor who are now excluded from it. Within a very 
short time after the establishment of such institutions, 
their utmost limits would not contain the applicants for 
admission. 
Such schools would be chiefly agricultural, but also 
answer! g the other two purposes referred to. The topics 
of this article are so numerous that they have been barely 
touched. We offer it as suggestive. We ask comment 
on the views expressed. We invite discussion of the 
whole subject of agricultural and business education. 
Mr. Martin has made a handsome commencement of 
one of the forms of Farm School of which we have spoken. 
But no private individual can, without assistance, com- 
pletely carry out such an enterprise. We trust he will 
receive the powerful support which the merits of his In- 
stitution will justify. 
It is ho jed that our next Legislature will take up this 
svftijfect. In what way can the funds of the State be more 
usefully employed than by putting it in the power of poor 
young men to obtain an education, not as pensioners 
upon the charity of the State, but by means of their own 
labor! Such an education would be less a dependance 
upon public bounty than a course at West Point. 
Iowa now expends S15,000 per annum for agriculture ; 
Massachuseets, S12,000; New York, S8,000. This is 
apart from the amounts given to Agricultural Education. 
For one Institution Michigan has given, through her 
Legislature, nearly ®100,000. The sums given by several 
other States is large. 
What ^as Georgia done ! What has the South done 
by Legislative appropriations for agricultural education! 
50 far as we are informed, nothing. Yet every one will 
grant, leaving out of consideration the planters themselves, 
if we had a body of overseers who, added to their present 
practical experience, were thoroughly informed in all 
that pertains to their.i calling, the wealth of the South 
would b? increased by millions of dollars. 
New York agreed to give an equal amount for an Agri- 
cultural School to that which might be privately contri- 
buted. The offer was met and the People’s College is the 
result. Two gentlemen in Georgia have offered to give 
51 000 each, for the established of an Agricultural College, 
if one hundred men will do the same, If this hundred 
can be made up, the State will be ashamed not to equal 
the liberality of her private citizens The subject is one 
of absorbing interest, as it concerns not only the develop- 
ment of the resources of a country which God has favor- 
ed and man has scourged, but also the unlocking of the 
fetters which imprison the minds of indigent youth, and 
enabling them, whether from the mountains, the middle 
county or the seaboard, to go free to work out the great 
purposes of their destiny. 
We trust that no imperfection of phraseology on our 
part, will induce an opinion in the mind of any one that 
we are hostile to our existing Collegiate Institutions. 
They answer their end. There is still another end to be 
met growing out of the change which parts of our social 
structure have undergone during the last half century. 
This is a speciality not provided for in the old system of 
education. Let the people of the South see to it that this 
end is met by the exercise to the limit of prudence of 
private and legislative liberality. 
Since the completion of the above article on Agricul- 
tural Education, there has been sent us a catalogue of the 
students of the Oglethorpe University, including the 
course of study in that Institution, There is great simi- 
larity in the course of study in all of our colleges. From' 
one, we may then learn all. We ask the grave attention 
of gentlemen who wish their sons to be educated with a 
reference to Plantation Life. If they are destined for a 
profession this course is an excellent one. But if they 
are to be planters, miners, merchants, machinists or civil 
engineers, what portion of this course bears upon their 
future pursuits ! Observe the large share of attention be- 
stowed upon the sciences capable of practical application 
to agriculture. The classics are studied in every term of 
the four years’ course. Ancient and Modern History and 
the Modern Languages are wholly omitted. Mineralogy, 
Physiology, Book-Keeping, and Drawing are also omit- 
ted. Chemistry is studied during two t rms of the Senior 
year, Botany during one term of the Junior year. A 
young man who masters this course will be an elegant 
Belles Lettres scholar. He will have laid the foujfidations 
for literary success in either of the professions, or in any 
pursuit requiring the accomplished use of the pen or the 
tongue. But it will have taught him at the same time 
rather to undervalue than rightly to estimate those 
branches of knowledge which are most important to the 
country gentleman. The Catalogue before us affords a 
subject of profound study. It suggests questions of great 
interest. It establishes the position, that while our Col- 
legiate Institutions are worthy of patronage in their re- 
lation to professional and literary life, other Institutions, 
preparing our youth for the practice of Scientific Agricul- 
ture, are demanded by the most urgent necessity. It will 
be observed that out of the forty-four studies of the four 
years’ course, twenty are Le^in and Greek authors. The 
whole of the first two years are devoted to the Classics 
