128 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
be more unsightly than its appearance. If it is to 
be applied to pasture, I spread it over the surface of 
the ground from the beginning of spring to the end of 
autumn. Three essential points are to be observed: 
First, to apply the manure to the soil as soon as com 
venient after it is made (except in the depth oi win¬ 
ter ;) secondly, to keep it as near the surface as pos¬ 
sible ; and, thirdly, to mix it well with the soil.— 
These being observed, I confidently assert, that ad¬ 
vantages equal to double those now derived from ma¬ 
nure are communicated to the land by an increase in 
the fertility of the soil, exhibited in healthier and more 
abundant crops ; so that a farm of 200 acres of arable 
land of medium quality, producing 400 loads of dung, 
or two loads for every acre, worth five shillings per 
load, will be benefitted to the extent of ten shillings 
per acre annually, and where more manure is made, 
which on every well managed farm is done, the ad¬ 
vantages will be greater. This result has been pro¬ 
duced upon the farm now in my occupation, belonging 
to Lord Cowper, in the neighbourhood of Leeds, to 
which I entered at Candlemas 1831; it was then in 
the most deplorable condition; so deplorable was it, 
indeed, as to lead many of my friends and neighbours 
to predict the impossibility of my procuring a tolera¬ 
ble crop upon one of the fields tor seven years to 
come; but this field, from the application of manure 
according to my method, has become exceedingly pro¬ 
ductive. I fallowed it for turnips, and in May (1831,) 
I put on about twelve and a half tons of good fresh 
made stable-dung per acre ; as much as possible was 
taken from tire stables and carried to the land the day 
it was made. My proceedings greatly amused my 
agricultural neighbors. The preceding tenant ob¬ 
served, that however such a system might have an¬ 
swered in other parts of the country, here it would 
be a useless expenditure both of time and money, and 
a great waste of manure. To convince him of the 
benefit to be derived from such manuring, I directed 
one piece in the middle of the field to be left without 
covering. With the exception of the land upon which 
no manure had been laid, the field produced a very 
fine crop of turnips, worth at least six pounds per acre, 
whilst the crop raised upon the land not manured was 
not worth six shillings per acre. After the turnips, 
the field produced a very heavy crop of barley, ave¬ 
raging not less than seven quarters per acre, and in 
1833 I obtained a most abundant crop of clover with¬ 
out any manure except on the land omitted in the 
first year. I also covered a field of pasture the same 
summer with the same kind of manure, half of it in 
June and the rest in August. Six weeks after the 
first part was done, I shewed it to a very shrewd and 
scientific gentleman, well acquainted with country 
affairs, who expressed his astonishment at the im¬ 
provement. In October, the farmer whose land ad¬ 
joins my own, said he had never before seen such ex¬ 
traordinary improvement in any ground. Knowing 
that he was one of those who had ridiculed my system, 
I hinted to him that the propriety of it had been much 
doubted. He acknowledged he had condemned it, 
and said he now saw that which he would not have 
believed had he not witnessed it, and that he thought 
the manure must have contained a large portion of 
white clover and other grass seeds, otherwise, in his 
opinion, such an effect could not have been produced. 
In the hottest part of last summer, I covered, in the 
same manner, the only field on my farm which had 
not been previously dressed in a similar way, leaving 
two ridges in the middle unmanured. I removed all 
the cattle from this field for six weeks, at the end of 
which the two ridges had scarcely grass to sustain a 
goose, whilst the rest of the field looked like a field of 
fog or aftermath. Many gentlemen examined it. 
Some seemed satisfied that much benefit was derived 
at very little cost; others expressed their conviction 
that it was the greatest improvement they had ever 
seen, and it is my firm belief that, from the time the 
dung was put on, to the end of summer, I had at least 
three times as much grass from the land manured as 
from the other. I must mention another fact. The 
man who spread the dung had farmed many years for 
himself, and might be considered a clever man ; he 
said to me, you would not thus waste manure if you 
had not the means of getting plenty more. I asked 
him to wait a month before he decided; he then de¬ 
clared that he had never been so much mistaken. I 
mention these things, knowing that my plan has much 
to contend against, and hoping that noblemen and 
gentlemen, who try my method, may not be laughed 
out of it before they have applied to it the test of 
due experience. It may be said that, in these expe¬ 
riments, I did not compare different sorts of manure. 
I have done so repeatedly, but, in truth, I had then no 
rotten dung by me. I would propose, to any one who 
doubts the propriety of my plan, to put a given weight 
of fresh dung on a heap, to remain (turning it over or 
not) for twelve months, at which time spread it over 
the land, and at the same time take a similar weight 
of fresh dung of the same kind, and spread it over dou¬ 
ble the space, and I doubt not the result. Hitherto I 
have confined the recommendation of my plan to prac¬ 
tical experience alone, but 1 am not without scientific 
and chemical authorities to support me. Mr. Joseph 
Hayward’s Treatise on the Science of Agriculture is 
worth reading by the agriculturist who searches after 
truth. Being aware of the great difficulties with 
which the farmer has to contend, I should recommend 
any new system with great diffidence, if attended with 
additional expense ; but as the plan I am desirous to 
introduce is alike recommended by its simplicity and 
economy, and also eminently calculated to promote 
the fertility of the soil, and to secure, by that means, a 
more adequate remuneration to the farmer, I cannot 
doubt of its being generally adopted, whenever its 
practical advantages are more generally known and 
appreciated. My subject has drawn me on to greater 
length than I expected ; I cannot, however, conclude 
without saying, that if, by the system I recommend, 
10s. or 15s. worth of manure can be added annually 
to every acre of land of moderate quality, at no great¬ 
er expense than by the old method, I think the land¬ 
lord, the tenant, and the public, will be great gainers.” 
On Education. 
[From the Educator.'] 
To educate signifies, literally to draw out —to lead 
out; and implies something within—something con¬ 
cealed, covered over and not to be immediately acces¬ 
sible for present use; but which, by a little careful 
management and a right use of means, may be led 
forth from its retirement, and thus become available. 
Thus the decaying vegetable matter which lies lifeless 
in the soil, by proper means may be drawn up into 
the roots and branches of a seedling tree, and finally 
become apples, pears and peaches ; or into the stalks 
and heads of wheat, and so become bread. Thus by 
educating the plants of his field, the farmer feeds the 
world. The steps of his process are immensely vari¬ 
ous, but they are all connected with the one grand 
design, viz. the drawing out of the earth what lies hid 
in it. Now it is obvious that he works entirely by the 
agencies of nature. He cannot make a blade of grass 
grow on a grain of wheat. It it the Creator's power, 
operating according to the laws which he has esta¬ 
blished in his world. And the farmer leads out the 
plants and the trees which feed the race of men, just 
by using skilfully the agencies of nature. His whole 
skill lies in just giving his tree or his wheat food and 
protection —every opportunity, and no hindrance, in the 
way of their expanding their powers. He cannot 
force them. 
Thus also with his domestic animals ; all he can do 
to draw out their powers and properties is just to af¬ 
ford them protection—defence against themselves, 
against one another, against the inclemencies of time 
and season ; and food suited to their innate powers 
and capacities, and that in proper measure and sea¬ 
son. For an animal, like a plant, may be injured by 
excessive or untimely food and drink. If it be the 
strength of the ox or the horse that is desired, this 
quality can be drawn out most efficiently by a careful 
observance of the laws of his nature. He must be 
gradually trained to its exertion, and the less violence 
he suffers, the more strength will he expend in his 
master’s service. 
So also is it with the powers of man. Infant hu¬ 
man beings are the germs whose development is the 
business of the educator. Feeble plants, indeed! 
needing above all others, and for a longer period, the 
hand of protection and of sustenance ! But it is with 
these as it is, generally, in the vegetable kingdom : 
plants and trees of rapid growth are short-lived.— 
The Lombardy Poplar soon outstrips the Cedar, but 
hs age is as nothing compared with it. Animals too 
are somewhat analagous. And in our own nature, the 
animal frame of rapid growth is not generally robust. 
In contemplating infant humanity as the subject of 
this process of drawing out , three classes of powers 
seem to comprehend the whole nature, viz. the ani¬ 
mal or physical; the rational or intellectual; and the 
religious or moral. To us it appears that under one 
or other of these may be arranged all the powers, 
properties, or faculties of our nature, the leading out 
and perfecting of which is the high and noble object 
of Education. Let us glance at these in their order. 
Physical Education first claims our attention. 
Because, for a long period of time,—a period equal to 
that in which most animals come to full maturity,— 
man is to us, an animal only. He is thrown upon our 
care absolutely helpless ; and our first concern is to 
protect him and to apply such means as are adapt¬ 
ed to put into action the powers he possesses.— 
Warmth and food are his chief wants. These admi¬ 
nistered in due proportion, and in proper season, will 
keep his feeble powers in action, and by their action 
they increase their own strength. The importance 
of paying strict attention to the bodies of infants, 
youth and men, it is not difficult to see. True, the 
body is of small moment in comparison with the mind: 
but it is equally obvious that it is to us the vestibule of 
the soul—the door of entrance to the rational mind. 
Our success in preserving the body in life and health, 
is indispensable to our introduction to the mind. We 
can operate upon this only through that, and the exis¬ 
tence and healthful action of the one is indispensable 
to the growth and expansion, under our influence, of 
the other. 
Here then opens out before the educator, an al¬ 
most interminable field ; and one too, of a very incit¬ 
ing character. Even in this lowest department of his 
labors, where he has to do with matter and its modi¬ 
fications, he occupies high ground. For the matter 
with which he is conversant is organized, and that in 
the highest degree known to us—so organized as to 
come into immediate union with spirit. Of all material 
subjects, the human body, mysteriously connected with 
an immortal mind, and destined to be connected in an 
endless duration, is surely the most interesting and 
the most important. We consider then education as 
including the entire business of protecting, nourish¬ 
ing, training and governing the body for the perfect¬ 
ing of its powers. Of course the more accurate 
knowledge the educator has of it, the more likely is 
he to succeed in his efforts. And we hope to see the 
day when mothers, to whom the business of education 
must first of all be entrusted, will themselves be in¬ 
structed in the general principles of anatomy and phy¬ 
siology ; that understanding the nature of the trust 
committed to them, they may be prepared the better 
to discharge its duties. And we hope to enrich our 
own columns occasionally with articles original and se¬ 
lected on all the various topics that relate to the heal¬ 
ing art, and especially the art of preventing injuries to 
the human frame. A sound lody will always have in 
it a sound mind. 
Under this department also is to be ranked the 
whole subject of the animal passions, appetites and 
desires. Every thing therefore that adds to their pro¬ 
per restraint and direction—every thing that goes to 
explain their connexion with their body on the one 
hand and the mind on the other, falls within our pro¬ 
vince here. 
But Intellectual Development is the chief part 
of education—rather, it has so been viewed by man¬ 
kind. And we are ready to admit that in comparison 
with the preceding it is chief. Nor is the general 
principle different here. The powers of the mind are 
to be awakened, as it were, like the powers of the 
body, by the application of suitable instruments.—. 
Food is an instrument for awaking and strengthening 
the powers of the body ; knowledge is the food of the 
mind, by which its slumbering powers are awakened to 
energetic action, and by which its dead powers, to use 
a contradictory phrase, become living energies. And 
the resemblance holds to a very beautiful extent be¬ 
tween them. Give strong meat to children and you 
injure their health; give abstruse and difficult know¬ 
ledge to a feeble mind, and you overwhelm it; it be¬ 
comes feeble and sickly. But let the items of know¬ 
ledge be always adapted to the capacity of the learn¬ 
er ; still a little beyond his last attainment; just so 
far as to induce effort, and not to produce discourage¬ 
ment ; thus you carry him onward in the endless race. 
Now there is one thing we wish to be distinctly 
understood between us and our patrons in this matter. 
It is this ; knowledge is not the ultimate object in edu¬ 
cation. It is a means to an end yet beyond it. The 
end which we shall still hold up as that at which the 
Educator aims, is the perfecting of the human being. 
The efforts of mind which we make in the attainmei.t 
of knowledge, strengthen it and produce habits of sys¬ 
tematic and persevering action : and this increase of 
the power of the mind is the chief gain. It is not the 
youth who has acquired at school the most know¬ 
ledge, perhaps, who has received the most benefit. 
He may have acquired it as the tub at the pump-spout 
acquires water; what has been pumped in may be 
pumped out again. But the youth who has been 
taught to exercise his own power in the acquisition of 
knowledge ; who has wrought it out for himself, 
with only the direction of his teacher; this youth, 
though he may have a smaller amount of knowledge 
than the other, yet has an inexhaustible supply. His 
is not a tub, but a spring, flowing up from its deep 
and exhaustless source. The man has made his capi¬ 
tal and his ability to use it ; the other has fallen upon 
his by some gambling turn, which threw the product 
of other men’s labors into his hands. The one will 
wear and the other will wear out. We will never 
advocate hydraulic force pumps to create stagnant 
pools of knowledge, whose possessor knows not how 
to use. Rather let us remove the tall grass in the 
ravine on the mountain side, and the turf and the 
leaves, and open up and lead forth the purling stream, 
whose limpid waters sparkle as they pitch down the 
precipice and hasten on to swell the waiting brook be¬ 
low. 
One other remark on intellectual education. It is 
interminable—absolutely interminable. That is, the 
enlargement of the intellectual powers, by their own 
legitimate exercise, continues through life. It does 
not stop when a boy leaves the school; that is, if he 
