204 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
through the lower ranks of society, and hence they were 
led to begin our system of education by the establishment 
of an university of colleges, and ot high schools. It was 
however, a cherished idea of Mr Jefferson, the father ot 
the University, that a system of primary schools should 
also be established for the elementary education of every 
white child in the comnionwealih. The university, the 
colleges, and the high schools have already prepared an 
ample corps of teachers; and I would appeal to this as- 
sembly as represenfativts of the farmers of the State to 
throw the whole weight of their, intluence in favor of the 
immediate adoption of some practical system of common 
school education for the mass of the people.” 
The above remarks are particulaily interesting at this 
time as showing the earnestness with which the best 
minds in the Old Dominion are devoting their energies to 
the enlightenment of the popular understanding. Their 
language and devotion remind one of Patrick Henry, 
and betray a deep conviction that a revolution in the 
opinions ofmen is indispensable to work out a higher and 
safer position fur the uneducated voters of the South. — 
That Mr Jefferson saw the necessity of carrying useful 
knov/ledge, and intellectual culture home to the people, is 
a fact of some interest as an integral part of our elective i 
system of government. But our present purpose is not 
to discuss popular education in general, but rather the pro- 
fessional instruction of farmers and planters. On this 
head Mr Philip St. George Cocke, the gentlemen above 
quoted, has these pregnant remarks': 
“It is a very remarkable fact that amongst all the 
numerous and varied pursuits of man, the very one oi 
those pursuits which has the most intimate, the most ex- 
tended, and ofen the most recondi'e connection with all 
the laws of physical nature, with all science, with all art, 
in short, with the whole range of knowledge, a pursuit, 
too, upon which depends the subsistence and the very ex- 
istence of the human species, upon which is based the 
well-being, the h ippiness, the progress, the prosperity of 
individuals, of States, and of nations. It is remarkable, 
I say, that the pursuit of aiiriculiure should be the last 
and the least io be bewefitted and advanced by all the vast 
pi’i'gress that has been made in other departments ( f 
skill knowledge and industry. And why is tliisl First 
because die science and the art of agnculiure, having their 
infinite connections near and remote, .withall knowledge, 
the gene rat subject is most dificalt to be understood and 
fidlijluioicn, as it is one of the most extensive and recon- 
dite that can engage the human mind. In the next fdace, 
because, throughout all history, and in every country, the 
very men n ost engaged and interested in agricul- 
ture, have been precisely those who have been least culti- 
vated and improved by means of scholastic exercises and 
education suited to their pursuits.” 
This is a truthful and sound view of the subject, and 
one that explains why it has taken over thirty-five years 
alter the first bill was reported in the New York Legisla- 
ture to iuund a State Agricultural College in that com- 
mon wealth, and before the pittance of $'4f>,(IOO was oti- 
taiwed tor that purpose, on condition that private citizens 
gave an equal sum. It will not take so long for public 
sentiment to ripen in Virginia. Hear the gifted President 
of her State Agricultural Society: 
“ It is universally deemed essential to educate the 
st'Hesmiin, the lawyer, the physii ian, the divine, the sol- 
dier, the sailor, the merchaot, the artist, and the mechan- 
ic; ami s.dtools, and colleges, and universities innumera- 
ble, are everywhere provided for iraioing the men desfin 
ed to these occupations, by enlarging and strengthening 
their minds, and extending their knowledge, so that they 
may command and control all the resources, intellectual 
and physical, for the attainment of the ultimate objects of 
their respective professions: whilst the farmer, he who is 
to follow agriculture as his vocation, is either left entirely 
without education, or with such defective, partial learn- 
ing as is to be acquired in schools which ignore the whole 
subject of the theory and practice of agriculture as com- 
pletely as if all science and all learning had no applica- 
tion to, no connection with, and no uses in the most uni- 
versal, the most necessary, the most complex, and the 
most difficult of human pursuits. The consequence of 
all this is, that even the best educated men, when they 
first come to practice agriculture, find thaf, they have 
everything yet to learn in the science and art, the theory 
and practice ol their profession; whilst the mass, the 
multitude of those who follow this calling, are as igno- 
rant of science as are the cattle they drive.” , ■ 
The losses sustained by the lamentable neglect of agri- 
cultural studies are incalculable. Mr. Cocke considera- 
bly underestimates them in the following statement: 
“In our Southern States, the entire class of proprietors i, 
or cultivators of small landed propi rty, the managers or i 
overseers having in a great measure the more immediate • 
supervision and control of the large landed estates of ^ 
wealthy proprietors ; the two classes of our Southern 
farmers and planters, constituting at least nineteen-twen- 
tieths of the whole number of those who wield the im- 
mense capital invested in land and labor throughout the 
slave-holding States, are universally and utterly ignorant ! 
of every abstract principle of physical or natural science, i 
And it is reasonable to believe that the loss to Southern 
igriculture each year in consequence of this lamentable 
stale of ignorance, if such could be prevented, and the 
amount ba saved for a single year to be appropriated and 
applied to educational purposes, that it would itself be i 
sufficient richly to endow as many agricultural schools 
ami colleges as are at present required by our Southern 
States. When we contemplate the vast amount ol igno- 
rance, the total want ot education, existing among the 
mass of the agricultural population of our own State, we 
should I'e at no loss to conjecture, that the pecuniary loss I 
to Virginia from this cause is immense indeed.” 
To remedy this unfortunate condition of things, it is 
proposed to establish an agriculi oral department or col- 
1-geat the University with three professors; and also one 
or more agricultuial schociL for the instruction of youth ' 
who may not have the means to command a college edu- 
cation ; said schools ta be located in the best cultivated ; 
districts in the State. “ To carry this system into sue- j 
cessful practical operation,” says its au'hor, “ will require I 
1 ^ 200 , Ot/0 to be appropriated in the following manner, j 
viz: SfiO, 000 to be invested in State six per cent, stock, 
the annual interest of which would pay the three profes- 
sors of the University Aiiriculiural College $1200 each, 
which, together with tuition fe^s, would provide salaries 
sufficif ni to command the seivi^es of the ablest [ rofessors; 
.$'40,000 would be left to build up and support an Agri- 
cultural Institute. I'he requisite buildings could be erect- ; 
ed at a cost ol from $50,0(10 to $75,000, and the balance j 
'of the fund should he invested in Slate stock, the annual 
interest only to be used for paying the stilaries of profes- 
sors, and other necessary expenses of the school.” 
If is proposed to raise one-haif of $200,000 by sub- 
scription. and the other moiety by aid from the Legisla- j 
ture. That there is en'nugli of liberality tuid inteihgenc# j 
in Virginia to achieve .‘something of the kind indit ated, | 
we have no doulu; and we shall n joice to see her taking i 
the lead of all the oth i Soutnern Stales in teaching agri- j 
culture as a learnnd and honorable profession. Sooner ( 
or later, the Legislature of Georgia will move in the sam« | 
direction. Up to this time, it has treated the study of Tit ’ 
