The Richmond Indiana palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1854-1855, 1855-03-02
AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION.

answered: "W hat they will practice. when they
become men There is much wisdom in the
answer Education should always be practical
But inasnuch as man IS held responsible BY his
Maker for the proper discharge Of variety of
duties. his education should be equal to his res
possibility.
| propose to consider briefly, in this essay, tie
outlines Of an education which l conceive most
conducive to prosperity and happiness in agricul
tural life.
Every superstructure of worth should have
solid basis. and the basis of all business opera
tons IS science; hence science IS at the bottom Of
all efficient, productive. successful agricultural
labor. | do not mean that every good corkman
must be scientific. His skill may be an imitation.
An original scientific thinker first finds out ho,o
the labor ough! TO be done, and the imitator
borrows. Some make srithmetics, others
take their rules, without asking achy, and work
by them. All that concerns them is that the work
may come out right. The art of labor l con-
tend then, is founded in science. Although the
masses may disclaim science, they are ignorantly
dependant upon host of intelligent, hard-think
ing, worthy, but forgotten men, who have blessed
their day and the historian has not known them
1t is this that distng gushes civilized from savage
society; that explains the great productiveness of
intelligent labor, and that makes the difference
IN the prosperity Of a slave and free country.
The principles of science run through all the
avenues of agricultural life All nature operates
by law 1t is the business OF science to explain
this law. By 1t seed time and harvest, day and
night. and summer and winter continue, and that
every living thing is perpetuaed in the earth
after its kind and every tree and herb is made
to yield seed after its kind By tthe sap mean
ders all the avenues of vegetable life, and the
leaf unfolds in the air, and the root strikes deeply
into the earth 1t prevades all nature--the fields
and focks and herds, and must be sought out
and obeyed, before the harvest will yield its in
crease.
By Natural Philosophy. we learn the adoption
and economy of the material world. 1t teaches
the order and law of matter, and its study leads
to order ofMough, and gives method and ingenu-
ity to the mind. The philosophic farmer has
co'tra rance. and Is ready for any emergency
He becomes his architect and can inte-
gently enter upon all the changes, plans and i'm
provements necessary to render his model farm
and good contrivance is great aid to the purse.
Natural Philosophy is the great examiner of
patent rights and machinery of all kinds, and
clears the brain Of perpetual motions. and other
impossibilities, and economses time ia thinking.
A single glance will be enough, and farmer
knows what he is doing when he spends money
tor improvements and machinery. Every boy.
much more every man. should study Natural
Philosophy.
Chemistry belongs to the education of far
mer. BY it and us sister science. Geology. ne
learns the strength, utility and nature of differ
ent soils. II also teaches him the quality OF
manure necessary to improve different kinds OF
soil, and the most convenient way of making the
application He finds that ashes, plaster, guano,
lime and compost all vary in chemical constitu-
tion and that clay, sand, loanl dc, require diff
erent elements to reduce them to the same degree
of fertility. The farmer ignorant of chemistry
makes his purchases and applies stimulants to
his soil blind, while the chemist can see
the whole secret Of his wants at glance and
l. Il,- cf,,ll,-
The chemist is also impressed with the value Of
things. He potash, soda, carbon and
ammonia in air, snow and vegetable matter and
discovers substance entering the grain of corn
another wheat and another oa:s, and enter
at one into the secrets of rotation of crops and
of the perecting of his harvests, 1t all becomes
plain. His daughters perceive the great influence
chemical element may have in the success of
experiment, although it may be sparingly
present. and at once apprehend the reason the
cream IS not good and the butter not a genuine
yellow, when the pans not scalded and
summed, She knows why cleanliness makes
things seceet, and why the stewed apples may not
so into a red earthen jar, and why stewed fruit
must not stand in copper kettle Farmers sons
and daughters should learn chemistry.
Botany must not be overlooked. Botany is
the queen of the farmers sciences She presdes
over the vegetable and flower garden She not
only gives him natural language by which he
can converse with all nature around HIM, and be
filled with admiration as he, from day TO dav,
receives the inspirations of nature, but the wisdom,
economy and beauty that prevade tie whole
vegetable kingdom. expands his mind He sees
design in all. There is one species Of plant for
the mountain and another for the valley, one for
the rock and another for the marsh while he sees
multitude blending In rich beauty and grace
fulness In his fields. The agriculturalis reads in
botany the law by which his fruits and vegeta-
b,es improved. and budding and grating are
al once comprehended. He has no excuse that
his cellar should not be filed with well selected
fruits and his table supplied with choice seec-
ton of vegetables
But Botany has another duty to accomplish
What young woman study Bo.any and not
keep her person and her home tidy? The ward
and the garden cannot fail to show what idea:
are in her head. The eglantne. lilac, cocorus
mul;ifiora, and variety of outdoor beauties sets
the whole homestead to laughing. outside while
tie geranum the monthly rose and verbena send
their smiles out al the windows and tell YOU tha
there is comfort grace and Intelligence within
Botany must be studied. The farmer and al
his family should learn It.
Anatomy and Physiology mus. be studied b,
i the agrculturist before he IS well qualified L
! master his business. How can man Judge o
stock until he has the skeleton we'll impressed
upon his minde Comparative Anatomy is tn.
foundation Of reliable knowledge in stock breed
ing. and the laws OF the Physiology are the onl,
proper interpreters of the crossing of stock ant
Of the best means OF fitting up buildings, so tia
the nature OF light, moisture. exposure, venta