THE CULTIVATOR. 
13 
cally learn and witness the growth of the various fruit trees and 
shrubs, ascertain their different species and varieties, and their se¬ 
veral inodes of ‘propagation , obtain a knowledge of the different dis¬ 
eases to which they are liable, and the means found most, uselul to 
counteract those evils: where, too, he can learn the various seeds 
and plants employed by the husbandman, whether cultivated as food 
for man, or the various animals necessary to his well being, or those 
vegetables tributary to the table, or cultivated with fruit, or the 
kitchen garden, as affording him the gratification of the conservatory, 
of the hot-house, or as constituting to the ornaments of the pleasure 
ground. 
An agricultural college thus organized, and provided with able 
professors and teachers, cannot fail to prove highly useful to the 
community, by affording the means of eoucation to our youth in one 
of the most honorable and useful professions in which they can be 
employed, and eminently tributary to the independence and happi¬ 
ness of man. 
The education of youth to farming, as a distinct profession, has 
always appeared to me a subject that merits as much attention from 
our citizens, and should receive the protecting care of our legisla¬ 
ture, as any other profession or occupation for which the various 
academies, schools and colleges of our state, have been established. 
While immense appropriations have been made from the public 
purse, for the institution and maintenance of schools and colleges, 
as preparatory to the learned professions, as they are too exclusive¬ 
ly denominated, no provision has been made for qualifying youth for 
the profession of farming, which is perhaps equa'ly important to the 
interests and happiness of the individual, as well as to the country in 
general, and which calls for instruction, and embraces in its various 
branches a system of education equally extensive with that of any 
other pursuit to which the human mind can be directed. For these 
purposes, too, a library containing the standard treatises on husband¬ 
ry, horticulture, rural economy, planting-, landscape gardening, the 
various memoirs and transactions of the agricultural and horticultu¬ 
ral societies of London, Edinburgh, France and other parts of Eu¬ 
rope, as well as the various productions of our own country, should 
be attached to the proposed institution. 
A lecture room, where the contemplated lessons may be delivered, 
containing a chemical laboratory and apparatus, furnished with the 
necessary tests for examining the various soils and manures, and a 
repository, where the various tools and implements of husbandry, 
and models of (lie different improvements in their constructions 
may be exhibited, are also necessary in an establishment of this 
nature. 
A new learned profession, as it may with great propriety be deno¬ 
minated, being hereby presented to our notice, in addition to those 
of theology, law and medicine, it obviously becomes the interest of 
every parent who has a large family of children to provide for, to 
pducate one or more of his sons to the profession of agriculture, as 
well as to those pursuits that have been enumerated. 
indeed, in some instances this healthy and active occupation holds 
out peculiar inducements, especially wl ere, as in certain families, or 
particu ar members of those families, a delicate frame of body exists, 
or a tendency to peculiar diseases is manifested, as scrofida or con¬ 
sumption such pursuit would be found especially beneficial, in im¬ 
parting strength to the constitution, and thereby counteracting the 
evils to be apprehended. 
As the expense of the proposed system of education would be very 
moderate, and would fall within the reach of most of our citizens, 
and indeed of our farmers themselves, it would not fail to attract ve¬ 
ry general attention, and to invite our youth destined to reside in the 
country, and to engage in the cultivation of ihe sod, to avail them¬ 
selves of the advantages of instruction in the branches enumerated, 
by spending one or more years in attendance upon the lectures de¬ 
livered in such institution. 
When we take into view the great extent of ^ur uninhabited ter¬ 
ritory, our various soils and climates, the immediate return that 
would be derived from the successful cultivation of the land, by those 
well qualified by education to undertake its settlement, the induce¬ 
ments that are thereby held out to the industrious tenant, and the 
great encouragement it affords to families to emigrate from the pre¬ 
sent over-populous parts of our country, such a preparatory school 
of agricultural education appears to promise the most beneficial re¬ 
sults. Such an establishment, too, by the great number of pupils 
that would resort to it from various parts of the state, and indeed 
from the different states of the union, would in a great degree sup¬ 
port itself from the fees of education and of board that would be 
thence derived. 
Such an institution might also be rendered valuable to our coun- 
} try in another point of view, viz. as a nursery for the education of 
farmers and gardeners in all the different departments of their trades 
and occupations. 
Instead of importing persons of these professions from abroad, as 
has hitherto been the practice of this country, an abundant supply of 
.both classes may be furnished from such institution, not only well 
qualified in all the various branches of their pursuit, but possessing 
a knowledge of our seasons, climate, soil and habits of culture, (in 
which especially the foreigner, from want of experience, must be ne¬ 
cessarily ignorant,) that would enable them at once to perform the 
duties of their calling, and to the greater satisfaction of their em¬ 
ployer, than would be expected from the stranger to our climate and 
our customs. Apprentices , too, of good moral character, taken from 
those classes of society who cannot defray the expenses of their 
education, should be received at such establishment for a certain 
period of time, for the purpose of being taught the various practical 
branches of farming and gardening. 
The labor of such apprentices would also in a great degree, if not 
entirely, indemnify the institution for the expense incurred by their 
board and education. 
I have with great regret observed that the valuable suggestions, 
on the subject of agriculture, by the late governor Climon, whose 
views were not limited to the fiscal or political concerns of the state, 
but extended to the general interest and welfare of his fellow-men, 
have been so totally disregarded since his death. 
I am persuaded that an institution so manifestly useful in diffusing 
an important branch of education, and spreading its benefits through¬ 
out our country, calls for little more than the protection given by 
the approbation of the state society with which you are connected, 
and the countenance of the legislature. 
I am, dear sir, with sentiments of the greatest respect, your friend, 
DAVID HOSACK. 
Extract of a letter to the President of the N. Y. Slate Agricultural Society, dated 
Saratoga Springs, Jan. 24, 1834. 
With regard to an agricultural school, it has always been a favo¬ 
rite project with me. Agriculture is a science, and in this country, 
above every other, it should form an essential part of a classical, or 
what is called a liberal education ; and I think there can be no doubt, 
that if such a school was properly endowed and rightly conducted, it 
would be more useful and better patronized than any other in the 
state, or indeed in the union. 
Our farmers, the best of them, have as yet advanced but a little 
beyond their horn-book in the science, and the reason is obvious. 
Their business has heretofore consisted in clearing up and in subdu¬ 
ing new lands, and in preparing a rich and fertile natural soil for the 
reception of the seed ; and in the management of this department of 
agriculture, I will venture to say they are not exceeded by any peo¬ 
ple on the face of the globe; but this is the mere rudiments, or sim¬ 
ply the alphabet of the science. A new era has commenced in our 
agricultural pursuits; the new lands are principally subdued, and 
their soil, though naturally rich and fertile, has become exhausted, 
and in the common phrase, worn out, by the long course of unscien¬ 
tific tillage to which it has been subjected ; and it is obvious to eve¬ 
ry one that the lands must be abandoned, or a more successful ma¬ 
nagement adopted. 
The great business of agriculture must now consist in renovating 
and reclaiming an exhausted and impoverished soil, in such a man° 
ner as to produce the greatest possible profit with the least possible 
expense. On this subject our farmers are but imperfectly informed, 
even with its practical details; of the science they know nothing. 
On this subject I could write volumes ; but it is unnecessary. You 
know it all. 
Your contemplated cheap journal is a good thing, and I doubt 
not it will take. I shall certainly do all in my power to encourage 
its circulation, and hope to be able to furnish something for its pa¬ 
ges. 
Dupes .—The greatest dupes are those who exhaust an anxious 
existence in the disappointments and vexations of business, and live 
miserably and meanly, only to die magnifiently rich. 
