Hour of Death. It will afford sweeter happiness, in the hour of death, to have wiped one tear from

the cheek of sorrow, than to have possessed the wealth of John

THE EDUCATION OF FARMERS.

27

Political Then they Political

countered, hereafter to be in the way of similar men. speculators are of more recent date in our country. were few in number, and timid in their movements. licentiousness had not then become a tree so large, with roots so deep and firm, as to withstand human power to cast it down; and with spreading branches so wide as to shelter and protect thousands of unprincipled traitors to national integrity. Hence, hereafter, there must be far more attention paid to educationto the diffusion of useful knowledge, especially among the yeomanry-to enable good men the better to expose the sophisms and the heresies of political knavery; or we shall be surprised, on awaking from a bewildering revery, to find some cunning Delilah has removed our hoary locks, and made us as powerless as was the ancient giant.

yeomanry.

Per

We have our Law Schools, our Medical Schools, and our Divinity Schools; but where are our Agricultural Schools? haps, in the whole country, we have half a dozen schools, particularly adapted to the circumstances and the interests of the Is it not a most inexplicable fact, that notwithstanding about two-thirds of all the Common Schools of the country are supported by farmers, and are for the education of the children of tarmers, there is scarcely an atom of the instruction given in them having reference to the duties, or the interests, or the conventional usages of agricultural society? Attend one of their annual or quarterly exhibitions, and you would not suspect, from the examinations or the rehearsals, that these children knew that they are the sons and daughters of farmers; that all their interests and all their anticipations are blended with the simplicity-the picturesque scenery-unpolished realities of rural life. Save the elements of education, which are and should be common to all classes, they are no more instructed in the arts and mysteries of their own particular sphere of life than though they were the children of Red Men in our western wilderness. If the fact were not incontrovertible, it would be incredible. All this is fundamentally wrong; and it is the consequence of a want of interest on the subject. It is not known that more than one Agricultural School-book has ever been published in this country; and that, although possessing great merit, was never much used, such was the public apathy on the subject.

Again, it is known that in the State of New York large appropriations of money have been made for establishing in every niche and corner District School Libraries. The act was a noble instance of wisdom and liberality. Such a territory deserves the name of Empire State. With such liberal provision for increas

One good head is better than a great many hands.

Jacob Astor, to have ruled an empire, to have conquered millions, or to have enslaved the world.

Who can beat this?—The Philadelphia Galaxy says an artist in that city painted a cow

28

and a cabbage so natural that he was obliged to

THE EDUCATION OF FARMERS.

ing the diffusion of useful knowledge, her farmers and her mechinics may become as much distinguished as her merchants— models to the yeomanry and the citizens of the whole country. The number of these libraries is far greater than any one would imagine not familiar with the topography and statistics of the State. And the number of volumes in them all is surpassing calculation, the libraries varying generally from two to four hundred each; making, it may be, at the present time, five millions of volumes. Yet, strange to tell, how few of them are particularly suited to the interests of an agricultural community! True, there are no certain data at command to settle the question; but from a tolerable knowledge of American bibliography, and with the names of those got up by the principal publishing houses that furnished these libraries, it is believed there is not one volume in fifty belonging to them particularly adapted to the use of farmers. You may probably find in them twenty volumes of Scott's Novels, Cooper's Novels, Marryatt's, and even Bulwer's Novels, the Mysteries of Paris, and the like stuff, where you can find a single volume of the class most needed. This is more absurd than to fill up a library for the especial use of Medical students with such books as Tillotson's Sermons, Gill's Commentary on the Bible, Mather's Magnalia, Neal's History of the Puritans, Hopkins's System of Divinity, Salem Witchcraft, and the Memoirs of Jemima Wilkinson.

On no account should the attention to elementary education in our country schools be diminished. Let all the members of the household be not only correct, but elegant readers; and reading, in the long evenings of winter, becomes a pleasure. If, for a succession of years, they be habitually employed in this delightful exercise, a fund of knowledge in history, in biography, and in general literature, will be acquired of unspeakable value. Correct spelling, too, should never be disregarded or neglected-it is one of the very decencies of elementary education; and in time may be effected by reading. So will the correct use of language or practical grammar. All, too, should be familiar with the philosophy of figures, or common Arithmetic; farmers and mechanics, as well as merchants. is quickly accomplished. With a very little instruction at school, boys on a farm will perfect themselves in it, by counting the cows, the poultry, and the hills and rows of corn-with the inductions that will necessarily follow, called inductive arithmetic. Then there is Geography and the elements of Astronomy, that should make a part of common school education. With the former, at the present day, every boy and girl in the country should be well acquainted. If ignorant of its principal

But this

Pride increaseth our enemies, but putteth our friends to flight.

separate them before they were finished, because the cow commenced eating the cabbage!

As the rays of the sun, notwithstanding their velocity, injure not the eye, by reason of their minuteness,

so the attacks of envy, notwithstanding their number, ought not to

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29

features, they will appear ridiculous. Yet an intimate knowledge of it is acquired in a short time, from the assistance derived from the superior maps and treatises now in use.

All the above branches, with good teachers, in country towns where there is opportunity for attending school from three to six months annually, may be acquired by the time children are ten years old; leaving eight or ten years more to be occupied mainly in acquiring some of the general higher branches of education, and the branches particularly appropriate to particular occupations. If all this period in school, with the long winter evenings, and the other leisure to be gleaned up in rural life, be devoted to useful studies, our farmers will not only become thoroughly versed in the mysteries of agriculture, but would be able to converse advantageously with men of science and literature; to discuss questions in philosophy and metaphysics; and to engage in all the details of legislation in the councils of the nation. They will become the leading men of the country; men of sound judgment; men prone to habits of rigid investi gation; and, what is of far more importance, not abstractionists, but thorough, persevering, practical men.

In the succeeding departments of agricultural education I would have Book-keeping by Single Entry at least, needed by every farmer in keeping his common accounts- -a labor, by the bye, which may be done properly by his wife and daughters; Chemistry, so far, certainly, as its principles are involved in cultivating his lands; Geology, likewise, to the same extent; and then Natural Philosophy, so far as it can be made a source of amusement, or be rendered subservient to agricultural operations. Mechanical Philosophy, in sundry labors on a farm, is of great use. Yet all this only carries the farmer to the threshold of the great Store-house of Knowledge adapted to his interests and his daily necessities. Where is horticulture, with all its enchantment of flowers and fruit? Children be taught to learn the names of the stars and their constellations, and remain ignorant of the organs in that countless multitude of blooming nature, from which they inhale the most fragrant odors, and on which the eye revels in ecstactic admiration! Be taught to learn the magnitudes and the motions of those far distant orbs, and still remain ignorant of the distinctive attributes of the different kinds of fruit with which their tables are loaded, and from which, if properly regarded, may become to the farmer a source of important revenue!

Yet even more important to the farmer do I esteem animal physiology. To me it appears absurd that children should be taught to remember the names, of the different capes and bays,

Never marry without love, nor love without reason.

wound our virtue by reason of their insignificance. Rats and conquerors must expect no mercy in misfortune.

aggrandized himself, but opened a door for the consummation of that advice that enabled him eventually to ruin his master.

Had Talleyrand's enmity to Napoleon manifested itself in opposition, it would have been fatal, not to his master, but to

30

himself; he maintained, therefore, a friendship that not only

THE EDUCATION OF FARMERS.

and the different peaks of mountains, in the most distant parts of the globe, and still remain ignorant of the names of the several bones in their own bodies; of the organs through which the blood so wonderfully pursues its rapid movement; and, indeed, of the several functions incident to animal life and motion! What is there in the wide universe so marvelous as the formation of the human structure? What knowledge to us so important as this wonderful machine-to comprehend its complicated action, so that, if one of its nicely-constructed wheels is marred and moved from its proper place, we may apply all suitable aid to restore it? In addition to the use of appropriate compends on the subject, let the town physician deliver a lecture or two every year in each one of our District schoolhouses, for the benefit of parents and children; and who can estimate the advantage of the practice? It would do more good than a cart-load of medicine dealt out where it is not needed, as it often happens. And to the agriculturist the anatomy and physiology of farm animals is, as it were, of greater importance. Without a knowledge of the particular points in these animals, well understood by the stock amateur, we cannot duly estimate their value, one would think, indispensable in the raising or purchasing of them. Without a knowledge of their physiological habits, we cannot, most surely, be enabled in the best manner to promote their health and their growth. And without a knowledge of their anatomical organization, we cannot duly provide for them if lame or sick.

There should be, therefore, at least in every town, a cabinet of farm animal skeletons; and, as often as once a year, there should be lectures on them. These lectures should be delivered by one or more of the District school masters, who should be chosen partly in reference to their competency for that service; unless some farmer, or the son of a farmer, in the town were able and disposed to do it. But, at all events, every boy in these schools of a competent age should be instructed in the science. On sundry kindred subjects, lectures in a similar way should be maintained on geology, on agricultural chemistry, on budding and grafting fruit-trees, on compost manures, and, indeed, on an almost innumerable number of subjects. In that case, our country District schoolmasters would be men of character and sufficiency of learning; they would have in society a reputable position; and the schools themselves would be the fountains from which would annually go forth young men of talent and genius to enrich the producing capital of the country.

Is it said that teachers then would be required of a higher grade of competency to instruct than those now employed? More credit can be thrown down in a moment, than can be built up in an age.

We know of no two things that difer more than hurry and dispatch. Hurry is the mark of a weak mind,

cispatch of a strong one.

A weak man in office, like a squirrel in a

31

THE EDUCATION OF FARMERS.

That is the very point at which we aim. teachers throughout the country, and the

Only employ such elevation of farmers will be speedily effected; not simply in competency for their own appropriate sphere of labor, but as men of distinguished intelligence in political economy, in politics, and in whatever else is connected with the fundamental interests of society. It may be said, too, that such teachers would cost more than the people can afford to pay. That is all flummery. Is it not cheaper to pay thirty dollars for a cow that will give fifteen quarts of milk a day, than to give twenty dollars for one that will yield only ten quarts a day? If one schoolmaster will enable children to learn as much by the time they are fourteen years of age, as another will teach them by the time they are eighteen, is not the former one cheapest, if ten dollars more is pid for him than is paid for the latter? The question is too plain to require an answer. Let these views on common school education be carried into practice, and the agricultural community will readily appreciate the results. As much as their education has heretofore been neglected, and as much as they have, of course, been depressed below their proper level, there is no deficiency in them to comprehend any subject whatever, when properly placed before them.

The author will here make reference to an incident in the history of his own life. Such allusions are not usually in good taste; but the one referred to is so well fitted to corroborate the correctness of those views, he is unwilling to permit the occasion to pass unimproved. It may be still known to a portion of the community, as readily as such things are ordinily forgotten, that in the early part of his life, he paid not a litle attention to education and school literature. He was in advance of the age. Then scarcely an Ame ican school-book had been published. Several of the prevailing features of the schoolbooks now in use originated with himself, although he is con strained to admit, that in the same sphere of labor others have arisen, and so far outstripped him, that in his advanced age he is as much behind the times as he was then in advance of them. With this preliminary he will state his incident. When a sophomore in college, forty years since, he was applied to, by a third party, to teach a district school in a distant section of the country during his winter vacation, a thing then very common with collegiate students. The terms were understood to be twenty dollars a month and board. The scene of his labors was to be in a locality of wealthy, plain, ill terate, but common-sense farmers. On his arrival they were all stran gers to him; and they, on the other hand, plentiful, like mos

Men may blush to hear what they were not ashamed to act.

cage, is laboring eternally, but to little or no purpose, and in constant motion without getting on an atom.