142 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. 
We have so often urged the importance of having ag¬ 
ricultural schools established in our country, that nothing 
but the full conviction that such institutions are essential 
to the prosperity and complete success of this most im¬ 
portant branch of industry, could induce us so frequently 
to press the subject upon the attention of the readers of 
the Cultivator. We are glad to find the matter agitated 
in various quarters; the legislature petitioned upon the 
subject; and individuals beginning to enquire into the 
practicability and advantage of such establishments. 
It is certainly one of the most important enquiries that 
can be made by the man of wealth, in what manner, and 
to what end he shall educate his sons to usefulness. He 
cannot look around him without having the startling 
truth forced upon his notice, that a large portion of the 
sons of such men are from their youth among the most 
vicious and worthless part of the community. If he has 
the feelings of a parent, he will be anxious by providing 
them with some means of employment, to prevent the 
ruin consequent on idleness. Shall he force them into 
what are termed the learned professions? These are al¬ 
ready so filled that no little ingenuity and skill is requi¬ 
red to devise the ways and means of so taxing the com¬ 
munity for their support, as not to drive the producing 
classes into open revolt; and there are clear indications 
that but a little more of this kind of pressure would be 
required to produce such a result. The spread of intelli¬ 
gence, the universality of education, and the consequent 
expansion of individual mind, will of course do away 
much of the necessity which has existed for the tolera¬ 
tion and use of these classes, and of consequence create 
new reasons for providing the young with other means 
of living. Under any circumstances, what greater bene¬ 
fit could he confer on them, than to make them intelli¬ 
gent, practical, hardy cultivators of the soil? This is a 
matter on which the man of wealth should reflect, 
v Such schools are not less important to the common far¬ 
mer, who has sons to educate. It is idle to complain that 
the farmer has not his proper standing in the community. 
The fault is his own. Intelligence, science, general 
knowledge, always is felt, and in a community like ours, 
where men make or mar their own fortunes, no man des¬ 
titute of such acquirements, has a right to expect success. 
Wealth may give a man power; but the power of Xerxes 
or the wealth of Croesus, cannot command respect. This 
belongs to talent, to the mind, to worth; and what situa¬ 
tion in life is more favorable to the development of these, 
than that of an independent, well educated farmer? A 
great change has come over the opinions of the world, on 
the important query, of what constitutes the man? and i 
remains for the laborer, the producer, the farmer and the 
mechanic, to see that the light now breaking, spreads and 
brightens, until all notions of a distinction of classes, oth¬ 
er than such as depends on position, or the will of the 
individual, shall be found to have no existence in nature 
or fact. To the farmer then, agricultural schools are the 
means by which he can more readily qualify himself for 
more extended usefulness; bring science at once to bear 
on his favorite pursuit; and effectually do away the re¬ 
proach once so common, that of all classes of society, the 
tiller of the soil is the most contented to be ignorant. 
It has been the custom to envelope the subject of an 
agricultural school in a mass of matters, most of which 
have little connection with the subject, or which if found 
desirable, may be connected at any time. The public 
has been taught to look upon such a school, as it does 
upon Yale, Harvard, or Union; establishments costing 
thousands, if not millions; crowds of professors, and all 
the paraphernalia of pedantry and literary lumber. We 
have not a doubt, if the shadowy outline of such a mag¬ 
nificent establishment, had not been held up as what was 
wanted for an agricultural school, if the idea had not 
prevailed that hundreds of thousands of dollars would be 
Required to put one in successful operation; if in the char¬ 
ters which have been granted looking to such institutions, 
moderate sums had been named, that long ere this lime, 
we should have had more than one such school in suc¬ 
cessful operation. If we had relied more on individual 
effort, and less on legislative aid, and followed the exam¬ 
ple set at Hofwyl and Templemoyle, there can be no 
good reason given why we could not have had such 
schools here, or why there should not be in the vicinity 
of all our cities and large villages, farm schools, where 
the most thorough practical education, would be combi¬ 
ned with a scientific and fully practical knowledge of 
agriculture, and many of the most useful branches of me¬ 
chanics. 
We have never advocated show in such establishments; 
utility is what is demanded. Industry, the means of ob¬ 
taining an honest livelihood, by personal, honorable la¬ 
bor, is what we want at such a school; and all expendi¬ 
tures that do not contribute to this end, are worse than 
useless. Two or three hundred acres of land properly 
constituted and situated; good dwelling and farm build¬ 
ings; a competent person to act as instructor in the sci¬ 
ences required to be understood or used for illustrations 
in teaching, such as chemistry, geology, botany, &c.; a 
farmer, practically acquainted with his business in all its 
branches, to superintend the out door operations, and a 
collection of such agricultural and mechanical imple¬ 
ments, as would be required in the management ot such 
a farm, would be sufficient for a commencement. The 
library, the cabinet, the laboratory, for all useful purpo¬ 
ses, at the outset need not be costly or extensive; and as 
the demand increased, the means of enlargement would 
also accumulate. What is there to hinder any man, 
where such a school is wanted, who can command the 
requisites we have named, from opening such a school? 
True, he must be known, the public must have confidence 
that what he undertakes he can perform; men will not 
trust their sons in the hands of the incompetent, or wil¬ 
lingly consent to remunerate mere pretenders, for their 
labors. The less of show and ostentation there is about 
such establishments, the more simple and family-like 
they are in their arrangements, and the less expense in¬ 
curred in the course of education, always supposing it to 
be ■practical and thorough, the better it will be for all, and 
the more likely will they be to succeed. 
If it is necessary that a small appropriation be made by 
the state, to put in operation such a school, as a pattern 
school, we think the money would be wisely expended; 
but we would rather see such institutions started and sup¬ 
ported by individual energy, intelligence, and liberality. 
It gives us great pleasure to state that the Elm Crag Ag¬ 
ricultural School near Nashville, under the care of Mr. 
Fanning, is fast progressing in public favor and useful¬ 
ness ; and we think with such examples as that, and those 
we have before named, no one need to doubt that a 
school in our midst, properly organized and managed, 
would be eminently successful. 
CHARCOAL AS MANURE. 
We have received a letter signed et Long Island,” com 
menting on some remarks made by Dr. Lee, on charcoa 
as a manure, and noticing also a statement in reference to 
Mr. Pell’s experiment on the same subject. (See Feb. 
No. of Cult.) Want of room prevents our giving the 
whole of the communication, but the following extract 
shows a fair view of the writer’s ideas. After alluding 
to Dr. Lee's statement, to show that in the case in France, 
referred to by him, lime was used with the charcoal, and 
having also mentioned that Mr. Pell used 52 bushels of 
charcoal and 300 bushels of oyster shell lime, the writer 
says:—“At about the same time these articles caught my 
attention, I had been reading “ Familiar Letters on Che¬ 
mistry by Dr. Liebig,” who teaches a different doctrine 
on this subject, the value of ammonia. In letter XV, 
page 51, is the following: ‘ Nothing can be more certain 
than the fact that an exportation of nitrogenized products 
does not exhaust the fertility of a country, inasmuch as if 
is not the soil, but the atmosphere which furnishes its 
vegetation with nitrogen. It follows consequently, that 
we cannot increase the fertility of our fields by a supply 
of nitrogenized manure, or by salts of ammonia, but rath 
er that their produce increases or diminishes in a direct 
ratio with the supply of mineral elements capable of as 
similation. 5 And in the same letter, page 52, he adds, 
‘ The effect of an artificial supply of ammonia, as a source 
of nitrogen, is therefore precisely analogous to that of 
