74 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
March. 
my name and mention my wishes to M. F. early in the 
morning after my arrival. 
Sept. 29, at ten o’clock, I announced myself at M. F.’s 
office. He begged to be excused for a few moments 
that he might complete a letter in progress. I walked 
up and down a little park or play-ground, looking out 
upon the grounds of the estate, and enjoying the dress 
now gradually being taken on by the forests—the yel¬ 
low and red, with all intermediate shades between them 
and green in such harmony and depth of coloring. 
Connected with the school are eight or ten buildings, 
all of them large, conrtructed in a kind of Swiss style. 
The roofs are pointed and projecting, and from two of 
these, towers or spires run up, giving a singular and not 
unpleasant expression to the whole. Northward, at the 
distance of half a mile, and some fifty feet lower, are 
two small lakes. Beyond, on the right, a high range 
of wood-land, dotted with farm-houses, orchards, groves, 
and in all directions, grass and grain fields, showing a 
soil of thorough cultivation, and a high degree of 
fertility. 
At the close of a half-hour M. F. joined me. He is 
about five feet eleven in height, large and fleshy. His 
ej^es and complexion dark—his forehead far encroached 
upon by the hair from above. The features are rather 
heavy, though the countenance beams with earnestness, 
benevolence, and intelligence. His movements are 
rapid —in a word, his bearing throughout, is that of a 
thorough-bred gentleman, upon aground-work of well- 
balanced mind and Christian principle. 
He had been made acquainted with my purposes by 
the English acquaintance of last evening, and took me, 
without proposition, at once away upon a walk of a mile 
ai«d three quarters, to the Agricultural school. On our 
way, he occupied my time with the subject of educa¬ 
tion, his father's peculiarities, Pestolozzi's great ideas, 
and all matters relating thereto, in a style of great 
clearness and simplicity, and with all the sincerity of 
expression that might be expected from an honest man, 
who knew the truth of what he was stating, and felt its 
importance. He does not pursue precisely the course 
of his father in instruction, because, he says ,— u I have 
not precisely the same constitution of mind; yet I ar¬ 
rive at the same result, tho’ following another plan.” 
At length we came upon Ihe farm-grounds, in the 
midst of which are erected two enormous stone edifices; 
one appropriated to the purposes of a barn, and con¬ 
sisting of mows, granaries, stalls for cattle, horses, 
swine, &c.,and the other a boarding-house or farm-house 
with study-rooms, work-shops, store-rooms, aud apart¬ 
ments for all purposes that could be connected with the 
domestic economy of the farm. Before us were the 
young men from sixteen to eighteen years of age, dig¬ 
ging potatoes. They numbered eleven,—three of the 
whole number were absent, or employed upon other 
duty. Many of them were bare-headed, and all of them in 
the peasant’s kittel, (blue over-frock,) The potatoes 
were assorted as dug—the lesser from the larger, and 
the sound from the decaying. The little crop had been 
planted, hoed, and now harvested, throughout, by the 
scholars. In these labors, and in all the others of the 
farm, carried forward almost exclusively by the pupils 
there is no play-work. M. F. intends they shall have 
a deep-seated conviction of what perspiration and 
fatigue are, and of how much ought to be expected 
from a day-laborer. Leaving them, we went to the 
meadow where they had been mowing—and to the 
garden where each had a little sub-division for himself, 
devoted to growing what he pleased. The larger 
kitchen garden was appropriated to cabbages, cauli¬ 
flower, beets, turneps, &c. 
The barn being situated upon an inclination, was en¬ 
tered by wagons upon a bridge above, and the hay and 
grain discharged with little labor into the mows and 
bays below. On the first floor were the stalls; one 
series for calves, (fine-looking creatures,) another or 
two others for cows,—all spotted, well-bred cattle, not 
large, but finely formed, in good condition, sleek, and 
good milkers—another series for swine, in which I 
recognized some Berkshires. The stalls were paved 
with small cobble-stones, and so inclined that the urine 
could be conducted to a reservoir without. Each cow 
was secured before a little trough and rack above, by a 
chain. No partitions of any description between them. 
On the same floor were broad apartments, for threshing, 
drying potatoes and beets, beside all the usual con¬ 
veniences of a stock and grain barn. 
In the cellar which extends under a large portion of 
the barn, I was shown a quantity of potatoes, some two 
thousand bushels I should judge, which were all threat¬ 
ened with destruction from the almost every where pre¬ 
vailing potato sickness. All were ordered to be taken 
up again and dried. At my suggestion we took some 
specimens of the diseased roots to be examined with the 
microscope; but its power was too feeble to reveal any¬ 
thing satisfactory. The theories of this tearful malady, 
seem none of them suited to all the facts of the case. 
It has fallen upon the plant in dry soils and wet—and 
in other soils equally dry and wet it has not appeared. 
It has occurred in the shade, and again has left such a 
location unvisited. Soils highly manured have escaped, 
and have not escaped. It is not in Switzerland alone, 
nor in Germany—but in France and Austria, and Eng¬ 
land, and in America. Not this year only, but in pre¬ 
vious years. To particular soils, degrees of moisture, 
exposure to sun, peculiar situations, or presence of unu¬ 
sual quantities of manure—to each and all it cannot 
be attributed. But I have almost forgotten Kutti and 
the farm-school. 
From the barn we went to a room in the farm¬ 
house, where the register is kept. This apartment is 
furnished with a double row of inclined desks, back to 
back—all in a single frame-work, a few chairs, some 
shelves, and a board for some forty keys. Here the 
scholars write in their day-books all that has been ac¬ 
complished, and all they have learned during the day, 
between 7 and 9 o’clock in the evening. M. F. showed 
me the day-book, journal, and inventory of the farm. 
The detail seemed almost immeasurable, but the system 
is so perfect that there is nothing like confusion in any 
of the accounts, or like difficulty in learning from them 
the exact condition of outlay and income. The milk- 
book, for example, had a record of all the cows’ names, 
their ages, the amount and what kinds of food they eat, 
and the average amount of milk given daily, determined 
by admeasurement at the close of each month; the 
amount sold, the amount fed to calves, the butter and 
cheese made, amount consumed, and quantity sold, &c. 
The day-book contained a record of each day’s work, 
with what, and by whom. The other books, and there 
were several, were not less interesting, or the system 
of record less perfect. All purchases, outlays, produc¬ 
tions, and losses, were displayed in the inventory sheet, 
and the absolute condition of the establishment shown 
by the balancing. 
After inspecting these things we went to dine. A 
spacious hall with high ceilings, lighted on three sides, 
contains a table, chair, and a sliding cupboard, commu¬ 
nicating with the kitchen below. Instead of a single 
cupboard carried up by cords and weights, this is 
double, one ascending and the other descending, the 
movement being effected by a cog wheel revolving in a 
chain connected at the extremes with the cupboards. 
A simple sentence of prayer for blessing upon the repast, 
and we were seated, M. F. at the head. The young 
gentlemen served the soup, rich boiled beef, cabbage, 
potatoes and bread, which constituted the whole dinner. 
At its close there was half an hour of relaxation; then 
all the young gentlemen assembled in the drawing¬ 
room to receive an hour’s instruction from their noble 
teacher. They were seated about two long tables, with 
their note-books, and in the apparel in which the pota¬ 
toes had been dug. 
It seems that the little republic of pupils had by an 
election of their own, appointed individuals of their 
number to the charge of each particular department of 
the matters to be cared for about the farm. One to the 
cow stables, one to the working cattle, another to the 
swine, another to the horses, another to the fruit, ano¬ 
ther to the rooms of study—the sleeping apartments— 
each a specific trust. One was elected to be leader hi 
all kinds of work. Each had been required to draw' up 
