1853. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
75 
can learn, the- better; but if, with all his know¬ 
ledge, he fails to secure that which he most re¬ 
quires, his education has failed of its end. In 
order to the successful prosecution of the study 
of the sciences connected ,'with agriculture, there 
is requisite some previous study,, and the, better 
disciplined and more developed the mind is before 
entering'.upon the studies'of'an agricultural col¬ 
lege, the greater will be the benefit to be derived 
from the course. At least the student should 
have a good elementary education, have acquired 
habits of thought and application, and be of suffi¬ 
cient age 'to have some settled purpose in life, in 
order to enter upon the study of agriculture with 
profit. 
The need of an agricultural college, distinct 
from any other, will be more apparent when we 
consider the essential elements of an agricultural 
education. In a classical education, the textbook 
is the main thing. Its object is to give the stu¬ 
dent discipline and mental furniture, and then he 
is left to apply his acquired power in any direc¬ 
tion lie pleases. Not so with an agricultural edu¬ 
cation. Theory and practice, knowledge and its 
immediate application, thinking and working, are 
inseparably connected. The institution that should 
propose to teach agriculture by lectures and text¬ 
books only, would go a begging for popular favor. 
An agricultural college without a farm, would be 
very like an observatory without astronomical 
instruments, or a medical college without phy¬ 
siological plates, skeletons, and specimens of pre¬ 
pared anatomy. Everything should be taught in 
its practical bearing, every principle should be il¬ 
lustrated by the facts which go to establish it, and 
the lecture-room and the work-shop, the student’s 
room and the field, should not be a Sabbath-day’s 
journey apart. The agricultural college, which 
should educate the mind, and neglect physical 
education, would only half do its proper work, if 
so much. The phenomena of vegetable growth 
and their rationale, the reasons for all the details 
of farm labor, the necessity for thorough tillage 
and draining, the kind of manure a given soil re¬ 
quires and why, the philosophy of a rotation of 
crops, the structure and composilion. of soils, and 
the system of farm economy and farm manage¬ 
ment, are among the most important subjects, 
which should be combined in a course of study. It 
would be necessary to use text-books on vegetable 
Physiology, Geology, Chemistry, Botany and En¬ 
tomology, but the system of teaching should be 
as simple and familiar as possible,.illustrating, at 
every step, principles, by reference to farm 
practice. 
In settling upon the leading studies in an edu¬ 
cation of this sort, it may not be amiss to observe, 
that there lias been an undue importance attached 
to the agricultural chemistry, technically so called, 
which bases scientific agriculture upon an analysis 
of the soil. The views of Prof. Norton, on this 
subject, so nearly accord with our own, that we 
quote from bis address, before the last annual 
meeting of the New-York State Ag. Society: 
“ I say to you frankly, that when you meet with a 
man who pronounces with entire confidence upon every 
theoretical point, who reads his analysis of your soil or 
plant, as you would read a book, distrust that man • 
for he is either intentionally imposing upon you, or he 
thinks he knows what he does not. I am a-firm belie¬ 
ver in the efficacy of soil analyses, hut at the same time 
must aeknowledge that our information in this depart- 
-* "* 511 My own 
merit is still far short of what it should be. 
opinions upon their results, are always given with hesi¬ 
tation and with qualifications, aud each year makes me 
more cautious instead of bolder, more inclined to be¬ 
lieve that our reading of nature s law is still imperfect. 
There are at this moment some of the most celebrated 
European chemists, who argue that our present system 
of soil analyses is 1 founded'upon wrong principles, and 
is almost > worthless.. Their- views: may be successfully 
opposed by the . results of practice alone, yet the very 
fact of their being entertained in such quarters, shows 
that there is much of obscurity and uncertainty yet 
hanging about the subject.” 
No one would rejoice more than ourselves, were 
all that sticklers for soil analysis claim, strictly true. 
It would be pleasant, certainly, to take a sample 
of one’s soil to town to-day, and in a week’s time 
to quietly put a statement of its deficiencies in one 
side-pocket, while the requisite manure might be 
stowed away in the other. If such results were 
possible, we should say by all means let us un¬ 
derstand chemistry—let us learn to analyse our 
own soils, whether it require two years or ten to 
master the mysteries of the laboratory. But we 
have the best of authority for saying that the law 
and gospel of correct farming do not hang exclu¬ 
sively or mainly on this principle of analysis. It 
is one among the many branches of science, which 
it is the province of the student of agriculture to 
investigate, but we can conceive of a thorough, 
scientific farmer, who could not tell in the twink¬ 
ling of an eye, or to the thousandth decimal, what 
was the exact composition of his soil. 
The idea to be kept promi nent in maturing a 
definite plan of an agricultural college, is, that 
it should be as simple and inexpensive aspossible, 
taking into consideration the absolute requisites 
of an institution, whose primary aim is to teach 
the principles and practice of agriculture. It is 
of the greatest importance to adapt it so pre¬ 
cisely to the confessed wants of farmers, that it 
shall combine every thing essential, and have noth¬ 
ing superfluous. We hope to show that the essen¬ 
tials of an agricultural college are quite limited, 
and can be secured without a great outlay. 
First, there is requisite a farm of moderate ex¬ 
tent, buildings for the accommodation of from 
thirty to fifty students, and an apparatus for the 
illustration of the different branches of natural 
science. The course of study may be divided into 
four departments, as follows:— 
1. Practical Agriculture. —Instruction in 
this department, should embrace the whole rou¬ 
tine of farm culture, management anil economy,— 
be elementary, accurate, and such as to lead the 
student to correct habits of thought and care¬ 
ful observation. The Professor, who would he in 
fact President of the College, and have the gene¬ 
ral direction of the farm, should, by all means, 
be a practical agriculturist, familiar with the every 
day business of the farm, and have the ability to 
communicate readily with the young mind, and 
lead it by easy stages to the comprehension of the 
more profound laws €>f nature. The use of text 
hooks in this department must be necessarily lim¬ 
ited, and the system of instruction should he col¬ 
loquial as far as practicable, making it always a 
main point to illustrate every principle by direct 
reference to some practical operation on the farm. 
The practice of requiring each student to lecture 
upon a given subject to the class, after which he 
is criticised by his fellows and the professor, which 
has been practiced in agricultural schools on the 
Continent, is worthy of adoption. A certain num¬ 
ber of students should he required by rotation to 
