218 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
EDUCATION IN RUKAE DISTRICTS. 
In an able and interesting report, made by the Presi- 
dent of the Virginia State Agricultural Society, Philip St. 
George Cocke, Esq., we find the following earnest 
appeal in behalf of popular education in the Old 
Dominion ; — 
“ Seventy thousand of our adult population can neither 
read nor write! And these, too, are ‘ bone of our bone, 
and flesh of our flesh;’ they are Virginia’s sons and 
daughters! In the name of humanity! in the name of all 
that is generous, unselfish and noble in our nature ! in 
the name of country, of Christianity and of God! will 
the farmers of Virginia any longer permit the existence of 
this deplorable state of ignorance. If my humble voice 
could be heard beyond this assembly, I would say to the 
farmers of Virginia, consider tha your children, aye, the 
descendants of the richestt of your present number, will 
inevitably in after generations be numbered amongst the 
poor. Transport yourselves then, in imagination, but 
thirty, forty, or fifty years into the future, and whilst you 
yet live, make yourselves the tender and blest fathers of 
the poor, and shed abroad your hearts and means until 
every child within the limits of our broad Commonwealth 
shall, at least, have the advantage of a Free School 
education.” 
We rejoice to see the leading minds in the noble 
Mother of States so devoted to the cause of educating 
the poor, who are unable to educate themselves. They 
are often the descendants of the wealthiest families; and 
in future, changes frotn affluence to poverty are likely to 
be more frequent still, as the fatness of wealth with its 
indulgencies, and the sharpness of want with its energies^ 
make rich men poor, and poor men rich, as rapidly as 
the seasons change from Spring to Summer, Summer to 
Autumn, and Autumn to Winter. But we prefer to let 
the eloquent Virginian be heard in our editorial columns, 
rather than our humble selves, in the matter under con- 
sideration. He says : 
“ It is a very remarkable fact, that amongst all the 
numerous and varied pursuits of man, the very one of 
those pursuits which has the most intimate, the most 
extended and often the most recondite 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 
existence of the human species — upon which is based the 
well-being, the happiness, the progress and prosperity of 
individuals, of States and of nations. It is remarkable, 
I say, that the pursuit of agriculture should be the lad 
and the least to benefitted and advanced by all the vast 
progress that has been made in other departments of skill, 
knowledge and industry. And why is this '? Fir.st, the 
science and art of agriculture having their infinite con- 
nections, near and remote, with all knowledge, the gene- 
ral subject is more difficult to be understood and fully 
known, as it is one of the most extensive and recondite 
that can engage the human mind ; and in the next place, 
because throughout all history, and in every country, the 
very men who are most engaged and interested in agri- 
culture, have been precisely those who have been least 
cultivated and improved by means of scholastic exercises 
and education suited to their pursuits.” 
The last remark above quoted hits the nail square on 
the head. It is no reproach to farmers to lack mental 
culture, when they had no fair opportunity to attend 
school so as to acquire a good education. That fact, 
however, is no good reason why they should not vote for 
giving all coming generations a better chance to improve 
the noble faculties of our common nature than they en- 
joyed. Without some material increase of knowledge, 
our future progress must be in desolating the land we 
cultivate, not in making it more fruitful. But hear Mr. 
Cocke : 
“ In our Southern States, the entire class of proprietors 
or cultivators of small landed property, the managers or 
overseers having in a great measure the more immediate 
supervision and control of the landed estates of wealthy 
proprietors, are universally and utterly ignorant of every 
abstract principle of physical or natural science. 
“And it is reasonable to believe that the loss to Southern 
agriculture each year, in consequence of this lamentable 
state of ignorance, if such loss could be prevented, and 
could the amount so saved for a single year be appropri- 
ated and applied to educational purposes, that it would 
itself be sufficient richly to endow as many Agricultural 
Schools and Colleges as are required by our Southern 
States. When we contemplate the vast amount of igno- 
rance, the total want of education existing amongst the 
mass of agricultural population of our State, we shall be 
at no loss to conjecture that the pecuniary loss to Vir- 
ginia from this cause is immense indeed.” 
The writer of the above proposes to add three agricul- 
tural professorships to the University of the State ; 
which would be a valuable addition to its educational 
force, although, in our humble judgment, to teach the 
profession of agriculture properly, it should be divided 
among not less than six professors, or the least number 
employed to teach the profession of medicine in Colleges. 
Some of the Agricultural Schools in Europe have thirteen 
professors ; but six in this country would do the work, 
if duly qualified, in a worthy and effective manner. Pub- 
lic opinion is growing up to demand the advantages 
which schools devoted to the elevation of tillage and hus- 
bandry as an enlightened calling may readily afford, and 
place within the reach of all. Every friend of improve- 
ment in agriculture and in those with whom it is a pro- 
fession, should speak out on the question. If the president 
of every agricultural society would take the high ground 
occupied by the President of the Virginia Society, he 
would be every where sustained by the Agricultural 
Press, and our country would soon be in advance of all 
other nations in both the science and the honors that 
legitimately appertain to this the greatest interest of man- 
kind. It has something substantial to build upon ; some- 
thing most enduring to uphold the wisdom and virtue 
devoted to the supply of its manifold wants Its friends 
should have/«t:f/i, and work accordingly. We have often 
wished that we had an efficient Agricultural Society to do 
what we once hoped tliat the United States Agricultural 
Society would achieve. The writer labored more than 
a year to get that institution organized at the seat of the 
Federal Government. Our object was not shows of fat 
oxen or babies, but to reach hundreds of thousands and 
millions by cheap publications, and thus create that kind 
of popular sentiment which supports every well-consi- 
dered effort to increase our agricultural knowledge. To 
make the human family think, and think to the consum- 
mation of a good purpose, they need not a little plain 
talking to in order to set their best thoughts in motion. 
We know from personal experience that there is a re- 
markat)le affinity between mental rust and rnsticliv ■ A 
little more rubbing and scrubbing of the intellect is need- 
ful on many a plantation to keep it bright. We find an 
