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SOUTHERN CULTITATOR. 
Galls on Horses. — A writer in the Wool Grower 
says: — “ A cooling application that will toughen the skin 
before use, and prevent inflammatory action when used, 
is what is needed for the work-horse. From long experi- 
ence, I have found these results to follow the use of spirits 
saturated with alum. I keep a bottle of alum and whisky 
in the stable and bathe the part pressed by the hames, or 
breast collar, and also the back, for several days before 
the horses commence their spring work, and also along 
through the season occasionally, when tliere is special 
danger of scalding the breast. I have thus passed entire 
seasons, employing constantly not less than five horse 
teams in farming uses, and have not lost the service of a 
horse a single day, for years together, on account of sore 
back or breast. This remedy will enable a sore to heal, 
although the animal continues in constant use.” 
We publish the following by request of the author, 
and commmend its suggestions to the consideration of our 
readers : 
AGRICTTLTT7EAL EDUCATION. 
Columbus, ^Oth March, 1855. 
Rev. C. P. B. Martin — Dear Sir ; — Your esteemed favor 
of the 17th inst., has been received. You will please ac- 
cept my thanks for the concern which you are manifest- 
ing in the promotion of the great agricultural interests of 
the country. I think your plan is not only beautiful in 
theory, but well suited to impart valuable information, 
and perfectly practicable in its adaptation to the wants of 
the country. It is difficult, however to anticipate what 
public sentiment will approve, and it occurs to me that it 
might be well to elicit expressions of opinion by a little 
agitation of the subject before the public, and I, therefore, 
suggest the propriety of publishing your letter, and tender 
to you the privilege of the columns of the Soil of the South 
for such additional thoughts as you may desire to offer, in 
support of the plan. This will probably draw out others, 
and in this way, the whole subject may be discussed 
and the public mind be prepared for its adoption. I have 
not thought sufficiently on the subject to very confidently 
offer an opinion, but should be glad to have the question 
examined, and see some move made for the training of the 
young men of our country, to meet the emergency which 
our wretched systems of culture has forced upon us. You 
will please excuse me for not saying more on this subject 
now, as it is one which concerns the whole country, and I 
hope you will consent to let them have the benefit of what 
either of us have to say, 
I am very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
James M, Chambers. 
Synodical College, April 1855. 
CoL. Chambers — Dear Sir : — Having reflected upon the 
suggestion of your note to allow my letter to you of March 
17th to go into the Soil of the South, I have concluded to 
submit it to you for publication, hoping that by so doing, 
it may contribute, at least so far as suggestions are con- 
cerned, to the awakening of thought and deeper interest 
among the people of the State upon the subject of which 
it treats — Agricultural Education. 
Yours, very truly, 
Carlisle P. B. Martin. 
Col. James M. Chambers — Dear Sir: — The interest 
you have manifested in efforts to promote agricultural im- 
provement and the opportunity your position as editor of 
the Soil of the South has given you to judge correctly con- 
cerning tlie practicability of the plans which may be en- 
tered upon for that purpose, induce me to address you 
and ask your opinion respecting the probable success of 
&n enterprise, which I have long desired to carry into 
operation ; bnt concerning the success of which, though all 
agree as to its desirableness and usefulness, there has never- 
theless obtained among my friends, to whom I have sub- 
mitted my plan a difference of opinion. The enterprise, 
to which I refer is a scientific and practical college con- 
nected with Agriculture. That you may be able to form 
a correct judgment concerning the enterprize, I will lay 
my plan before you a little more fully : 
first item. 
' The Course of Study. 
T. The English Language.— hi its Orthography, its 
Grammar, its Rhetoric, its Logic. 
II. The Earth. — Its Geography, Mineralogy, Geology 
and Chemistry. 
III. Number and Quantity. — Embracing Arithmetic, 
Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Surveying, Civil En- 
gineering. 
IV. Natural and Moral Science. — Embracing Natural 
Philosophy, Meteorology, Botany, Chemistry, Agricul- 
tural Chemistry, Ethics. 
V. Intellectual Philosophy, Political Economy. 
VI. Ancient and Modern Languages, when desired. 
SECOND ITEM. 
In connection with the Institution, I propose to have a 
Farm, say, of two hundred acres of land, to be cultivated 
in the most careful and scientific manner, and every ope- 
ration of the farm to be made the subject of daily ob- 
servation and note by the students. A regular note-book is 
to be used by each student for the daily record of every 
operation, and an hour each day is to be appropriated for 
farm inspection as much as for recitation in the school- 
room. Observations will also be made and notes taken 
concerning the weather, the amount of rain, and other 
phenomena in meteorology. 
I do not deem it necessary to enter into a minute expla- 
nation of the application or the carrying out of this plan 
in detail to you, for you will at once perceive that it em- 
braces the character of the soil, the kind of manures used, 
and the manner of preparing them, as also the mode and 
time of applying them ; the manner of plowing, the kind 
of plow ; the time of plowing ; the time and manner of 
planting ; the culture ; the result. 
The carrying out of the plan just sketched will be a 
scientific school, for all the knowledge acquired would be 
classified, science being clasified knowledge; it would 
also be api-actical school, for all the knowledge acquired 
would be at once applied. Agricnltural Chemistry, in 
some form or other, would be a subject of daily study. 
With the smaller students, such a text book as Johnston’s 
“Agricultural Catechism” would be used, and with the 
larger or more advanced scholars Gray’s Agricultural 
Chemistry, or some other of equal value, as Johnston’s 
Leibig’s, Waring’s, &c. 
I do not propose to make it a Manual Labor School ; 
the labor of the farm is to be performed by farm hands as 
on any other plantation. The Farm and all operations 
thereon are, so far as the school is concerned, merely for 
observation, illustration and experiment. It is to be tlie 
great laboratory of the school — it is to be its “cabinet” 
and “herbarium.” This being the case, you at once per- 
ceive that Botany, Mineralogy, Geology and Agricultural 
Chemistry will be taught practically. 
I do not propose in this communication any argu- 
ment to show the advantages, distinctive and characteris- 
tic, which must result from an education conducted on this 
plan. They lie so apparent, it seems to me, upon the 
very surface of the system, that I only wonder that all tlie 
schools in the land have not been modeled upon this prac- 
tical idea. I will, however, simply add the remark, that 
the distinctive characteristics of the plan of education I 
propose, 3 X 0 observation, expeiiment 3 . 06 . practical applica~ 
tion. F or this purpose, in addition to the facilities aftbrd- 
