THE CULTIVATOR. 
i£“SS 
131 
facilities of commercial intercourse previously existed—they have 
in fact comparatively and seriously diminished the value of real 
estate in some districts ; yet no one doubts their utilily to the com¬ 
munity at large. Besides should the predictions of ttie usefulness 
of an agricultural school be verified, schools of the kind can be 
readily multiplied. 
The pupils of an agricultural school would not only carry with 
them into business life, those principles of science and that gene¬ 
ral knowledge which would be calculated to improve our husband¬ 
ry, and to add to the stock of general knowledge—but they would 
carry with them, and disseminate, 'practical knowledge in all the 
departments of agricultural labor. They would carry with them 
a knowledge of the various breeds of farm stock, of their relative 
value,—of the diseases to which they are incident, and the me¬ 
thods of treating them, when well or sick—a knowledge of the 
nature and proper management of different manures—of the prin¬ 
ciples and methods of draining and irrigation—of the principles 
and value of alternating crops—of the best varieties of fruits and 
culinary vegetables, and the modes of propagating, cultivating 
and preserving- them—a knowledge of all new plants, profitable 
in our rural culture, method of treatment, the soils to which they 
are adapted, and mode of preparing for market—of the leading- 
principles of mechanical science, highly essential in the construc¬ 
tion and management of form implements. They would carry 
with them, also, habits of application and reflection—hands inur¬ 
ed to labor, and minds imbued with light and truth, and animated 
with an ardent desire to obtain distinction for usefulness. The 
example of a good farmer exerts a magic and benign influence 
upon all around him. His light is not hid under a bushel; but 
shines forth to illuminate and instruct all who are within its influ¬ 
ence. Who will set bounds to the benefits which would result 
from annually locating one or two hundred such pupils in various 
parts of the state. 
2. The standard of instruction in our common schools should 
be raised, to fit the pupils for the high dut ies and respons ibilities 
offreemen, and to aid them in their future business of life. This 
is required, as well by political and moral considerations, as by 
a desire to keep pace, in the arts of labor, with the improvements 
of the age. The preservation of our civil rights depends upon 
the intelligence and independence of the middle class of society 
—the pecuniary prosperity of our state upon their habits of profit¬ 
able industry. It is in our common schools that we are to lay the 
foundation of this intelligence and independence, and to inculcate 
principles and habits of useful industry. 
The reports from our penitentiaries furnish us with two remarka¬ 
ble facts, viz. that of 180 convicts in the Connecticut state pri¬ 
son, ££ there is no one who, before his conviction, could read and 
write, and who was of temperate habits, and followed a regular 
trade ”—and that “there never hus been, in that prison, a convict 
who had received either a collegiate or classical education.'’’ Vo¬ 
lumes could not enforce more strongly the propriety of adopting 
a high standard of common school instruction, nor urge stronger 
considerations for multiplying incentives to honest labor. These 
matters come within the special province of the agricultural class, 
who must from their numbers and influence give the impress to 
our character so long as our freedom shall survive. How little is 
now done in our common schools to instruct the boy in his future 
business of life, or in his civil rights and responsibilities. 
The importance of the middle class of a population, under a 
free government, is forcibly shown in the following extract, which 
we make from Sismondi’s History of the fall of"the Roman em¬ 
pire. 
“ But one effect,” says this historian, “ of the long duration of 
states, and of their extended power, is, to separate the inhabitants 
into two classes, between whom the distance is constantly widen¬ 
ing, and gradually to destroy the intermediate class, together with 
which all the social virtues are gradually uprooted and annihilated. 
From the time that this gulph is once opened between the two ex¬ 
tremes of society, every successive revolution does but contribute 
to widen it; the progress of wealth had been favorable to the rich, 
the progress of distress favors them still more. The middle class 
had been unable to stand the competition with them during pros¬ 
perity ; in adverse times it is crushed under those calamities which 
only the wealthy can stand against. The corruption of Rome had 
begun from the time of the republic, from the time that the mid¬ 
dle class ceased to impress its own peculiar character on the whole 
nation; tins corruption increased in proportion as the intermediate 
ranks disappeared ; it was carried to the highest pitch when the 
whole empire consisted of men of enormous wealth, and popu¬ 
lace. 
“ It is, in fact, in the middle classes that the domestic virtues, 
|—economy, forethought and the spirit of association,—mainly 
| reside. It is in them that a certain degree of energy is incessantly 
called into operation, either as a means of rising, or of keeping 
the position already acquired. It is in them that alone the senti¬ 
ment of social equality, on which all justice is based, can be 
kept alive. We must see our equals, live with them, and meet 
I them daily and hourly, encounter their interests and their passions, 
before we can get the habit of seeking our own advantage in the 
common weal alone. Grandeur isolates a man; vast opulence ac¬ 
customs each individual to look upon himself as a distinct power. 
He feels that he can exist independently of his country ; that his 
elevation or his fall maybe distant; and, ere long-, the servile 
dependents, by whom a man who spends as much as a petty state 
is sure to be surrounded, succeed in persuading him that his plea¬ 
sures, his pains, nay, his slightest caprices, are more important 
than the welfare of the thousands of families whose means of sub¬ 
sistence he engrosses. 
£! The morality of a nation is preserved by associating its sen¬ 
timents with all that is stable and permanent; it is destroyed by 
whatever tends to concentrate them on the present moment. So 
long as our recollections are dear to us, we shall take care that 
our liopes be worthy of them ; but a people who sacrifice the me¬ 
mory of their ancestors, or the welfare of their children, to the 
pleasures of a day, are but sojourners in a country—they are not 
i citizens.” 
j' 3. si portion of public money may be usefully applied in aid of 
county agricultural societies, to call forth talent and to excite in¬ 
dustry. Of the salutary effects of premium rewards, for skill and 
! enterprise in agricultural improvement, we have testimony enough 
in the experiment which our state made in 1817, and which is yet 
exerting a beneficial influence among us. We see it confirmed 
also in the states which surround us, some of which have for a long 
time been liberal of their funds to this object, while others, yet 
in their infancy, have recently began to copy the provident exam¬ 
ple. There is no country which has made greater advances in 
improved husbandry, during the last fifty years, than Scotland, 
and there is none perhaps which now excels her. Her agricultu¬ 
ral society has been in existence about fifty-one years, and in that 
time has distributed, to the tillers of the soil, premiums to the va¬ 
lue of about half a million of dollars. The value of her agricul¬ 
tural products has been augmented, in the mean time, several mil¬ 
lions annually. Who will deny, that her premiums have contribut¬ 
ed largely to bring about this wonderful improvement in Scotch 
husbandry. The remarks of Chaptal upon this subject, inserted 
in our October number, are so pertinent and forcible, that we beg 
leave to refer to them, as further illustration upon this head. 
4. We want better common roads. The existing laws are de¬ 
fective, or they are not faithfully executed. Nothing tends so ra¬ 
id ly to improve and enrich a district, as good roads. The pro¬ 
ts of agricultural labor, as well as the stimulants to industry, are 
increased by every new facility for transporting its products to 
market. The attention of our legislatures has been so much en¬ 
grossed by party politics, priv ate claims and monied incorpora¬ 
tions, as to leave little time to deliberate upon the matter, and to 
digest a better system. In truth, a goodly portion have been strict¬ 
ly political or professional gentlemen, whose study has been more 
to improve the read to office, and the road to preferment, than the 
common roads of the farmer. Plans of improvement have been 
suggested, and we are advised that some of these will probably be 
submitted. 
5. We have a formidable enemy in the Canada thistle , which 
it requires the united efforts of all landholders to put down, aided 
by legal penalties. Lastly. 
6. The serious depredations of the Gram-worm upon the wheat 
crop of some districts, and the apprehended danger, that it will ex¬ 
tend itself over the state, is a matter highly worthy the considera¬ 
tion of an agricultural convention. 
We have thus suggested some prominent subjects which may 
engage the attention of an agricultural convention, of manifest 
importance to the farmer and the public. Whether all or any of 
them will be discussed it is not our province to say. And we will 
