New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1842-12-27


TIE Tribune. Letters subject be addressed
postpsid to A. BRISBANE, &c Leonara,sres:, Ne York
Branches OF Agriculture ndnPted 60 Child;
hood. From Fourier
Nature, in the vegetable kingdom, must have cal
culated upon an extensive employment of Children,
fo- she has created in great abundance little vege
tables and shrubbery. which should occupy the child
and not the grown person. Two thirds of our gar
dens are composed oflittle plants which adapted
to the labor OF children.
Flowers with the exception OF small number
should be cultivated BY them and by women. Ma
ture, in consequence. has given them strong in
clination for shrubbcry and flowers, in tee cul,;-
vation of which they at present take no part.
The child in the Combined Order will take an
active part in the riva!res of Association with
Association. Group of Children cultivating
strawberries, mortified to find that some va
rieties of those of a neighborng Association bear
away the palm as to size and flavor. The van
pushed wish to know the cause Of their failure,
which, perhaps, may be owing to the difference OF
soils. This offers an occasion to the Tutor who
directs the Group to give them lesson on the
| varieties of soils; and this study, continued in
other Groups, will initiate them by degrees into
an elementary knowledge of the Mineral Kingdom.
This incentive viii be an inducement for them to
attend the schools, and apply themselves to the
study OF some branch Of Mineralogy such as the
classification Of earths
Thus Association never gives 10 the child any
smrLe Instructions. 1t only initiates it into one
Science, by combining that Science with rractica
notions previously acquired in different branches of
Industry, particularly in Agriculture, Masonry and
Carpentry.
Agricultural rvalries will early accustor children
to q speculative or investigating turn of mind 1t
Is very necessary in the cultivation OF flowers: what
is more difficult to raise to perfection than the jon
quill the narcissus the tulip the varieties of the rose
and violet? IfNature requires so much know ledge
in the care of these flowers it is because she wishes
to accustom the minds of children, who have pas.
sion for their cultivation, habit of examination
and reflection.
Nature has also reserved them some parts in the
heavier branches of Agriculture-such as the cul-
tivation of buckwhcat, beans, peas, &c. A Group
of children, devoted to the cultivation Of these
vegetables, is obliged to study the qualities of
soils and nlanurcs, and to understand the influence
Of climate, in order to comprehend the cause OF
the success of this or that Association. A child,
devoted from riratry and passion to these occu-
pa,ions, will insensbly become chemist and a
naturalist thinking itself occupied merely with the
rivalrics of its Groups and its Association
Tho whole system of Agriculture is deranged by
the exclusion of Women and Children from its oc-
cupations to whom Nature assigns the care of SO
many varieties of fruits, flowers and vegetables.
The greater portion of our gardens, and all the
smaller classes of fruittrees and shrubbery should
be allotted to women and children. The Child, so
far from devoting itself to useful industry enters
the gardens only to eat fruits which it has aided
in crltivatiag and to pluck and destroy the tiowors
as nseeuence what is most to be desired for gar
dens is, that children should no, set foot in them.
An incontestibe proof that we do not know at
present how to apply the labor OF Women and
Children to Agriculture is, that Man is obliged to
abandon those branches Of Industry which are
specially allotted to him BY Nature, such as works
of irrigation and care of forests. Ho cannot, in
the present Order devote himself to these branches
of Industry because he is occupied in works which
properly belong to Women and Caildren,-such
as the care of small domestic animals, of poultry,
the gardens &c.-cares from which ne should be
relieved by those two classes.
The male sex has excluded Women from In
dn,trv. believing that the trivial occupations of
tbe household are those to which she is destined
BIZ Nature. What is the result? Man himself
has become slave; instead of having made
Woman subordinate, he has excited both in the
Woman and the Child disgust for Industry
He is reduced, in consequence, TO attend TO oc'
cupations Of 1stich they should take charge, and
has, besides, 10 support item both ert Of The pro-
duet Of his labor. This is the result tyranny:
it is caught in its own sRares.
The true occupations of the male sex are those
which require bodily strength, such as
Works of Irrigation.
Care Of Forests.
Cultivation OF Grains.
The third branch abserbs the others the Agu-
cultural Classes can neither attend to the care OF
Forests nor to works of Irrigation. On the con-
rarv The forests are fast disappearing in all older
countries, and the streams which are the principal
means of irrigation, are in consequence drying up.
What a career will be opened to Man IN Indus
try as soon as Association makes use OF the labor
AID activity of Womep and Children. Association
once organized, fve-sixths of the Women will I'm
mediately be free to devote themselves to produc-
tive Occupations; this result will be produced ~
the suppression of the complicated and useless
works which arise from the multiplicity OF niue
Households from the troublesome care OF Chll-
drep. from the bad quality of manufactured goods,
and from the foolish changes of the fashions, which
absorb in in,erninabIe works OF the needle, and IN
superauous trillss, SO many Women.