cannot, in a reasonable time, sensibly affect the average standard of
agricultural learning among us
My chief objection is, that such a plan is not comprehensive enough, and
cannot, in a reasonable time, sensibly affect the average standard of
agricultural learning among us. The graduation of fifty students a year
would be equal to one in a thousand or fifteen hundred of the farmers of
the state; and in ten years there would not be one professionally
educated farmer in a hundred. We are not, of course, to overlook the
indirect influence of such a school, through its students annually sent
forth: the better modes of culture adopted by them would, to some
extent, be copied by others; nor are we to overlook the probability of a
prejudice against the institution and its graduates, growing out of the
republican ideas of equality prevailing among us. But the struggle
against mere prejudice would be an honorable struggle, if, in the hour
of victory, the college could claim to have reformed and elevated
materially the practices and ideas of the farmers of the country. I fear
that even victory under such circumstances would not be complete
success. An institution established in New England must look to the
existing peculiarities of our country, rather than venture at once upon
the adoption of schemes that may have been successful elsewhere. Here
every farmer is a laborer himself, employing usually from one to three
hands, and they are often persons who look to the purchase and
cultivation of a farm on their own account; while in England the master
farmer is an overseer rather than a laborer. The number of men in Europe
who own land or work it on their own account is small; the number of
laborers whose labors are directed by the proprietors and farmers is
quite large. Under these circumstances, if the few are educated, the
work will go successfully on; while here, our agricultural education
ought to reach the great body of those who labor upon the land. Will a
college in each state answer the demand for agricultural education now
existing? Is it safe in any country, or in any profession or pursuit, to
educate a few, and leave the majority to the indirect influence of the
culture thus bestowed? And is it philosophical, in this country, where
there is a degree of personal and professional freedom such as is
nowhere else enjoyed, to found a college or higher institution of
learning upon the general and admitted ignorance of the people in the
given department? or is it wiser, by elementary training and the
universal diffusion of better ideas, to make the establishment of the
college the necessity of the culture previously given? Every new school,
not a college, makes the demand for the college course greater than it
was before; and the advance made in our public schools increases the
students in the colleges and the university. We build from the primary
school to the college; and without the primary school and its
dependents,--the grammar, high school, and academy,--the colleges would
cease to exist. This view of education supports the statement that an
agricultural college is not the foundation of a system of agricultural
training, but a result that is to be reached through a preliminary and
elementary course of instruction. What shall that course be? I say,
first, the establishment of town or neighborhood societies of farmers
and others interested in agriculture. These societies ought to be
auxiliary to the county societies, and they never can become their
rivals or enemies unless they are grossly perverted in their management
and purposes. As such societies must be mutual and voluntary in their
character, they can be established in any town where there are twenty,
ten, or even five persons who are disposed to unite together. Its object
would, of course, be the advancement of practical agriculture; and it
would look to theories and even to science as means only for the
attainment of a specified end. The exercises of such societies would
vary according to the tastes and plans of the members and directors; but
they would naturally provide for discussions and conversations among
themselves, lectures from competent persons, the establishment of a
library, and for the collection of models and drawings of domestic
animals, models of varieties of fruit, specimens of seeds, grasses, and
grains, rocks, minerals, and soils. The discussions and conversations
would be based upon the actual observation and experience of the
members; and agriculture would at once become better understood and more
carefully practised by each person who intended to contribute to the
exercises of the meeting.
title=and if so
?p=186 title=Permalink to reselling their business listing names containing Att Wireless Revise results: How did the Live... rel=bookmark
south florida and reliable service from custody of bail bonds wanted fugitives l i a b b bail
