Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1857-08-26
THE FARMERS HIGH SCHOOL
OF PENNSYLVANIA.

| SpSCidt dttcutiOu VI lTtcHuS. It's ptOJcClOTS
design that it shall be a school where Agricul-
| tural knowledge and science may be obtained
| at an expense SO moderate as to be within the
means of those whose occupation is that of a
Farmer that whilst youths are being taught
the business which is to be the occupation of
their after life, they will be contributing to
their own education, by the labor of their own
hands. Under the direction of Professors who
will be skilled in the art of farming, and in all
those natural sciences which pertain to it, all
the management, business and work of the
farm,will be performed by the pupils whilst
their minds are being imbued with the princi-
pies and science of agriculture, their daily oc-
cupation will be practically testing the truth
| of what they learn.
1t is the desire of the Board of Trustees to
put the public in possession of all information
respecting the design, present condition, and
future prospects of the Farmers High School,
| and to ask of them to take such interest in the
Institution, as its object and merits demand.
The Board of Trustees in 1855, after a most
| careful and personal examination of several
| points, in various quarters of the State, fixed
| the location in Centre county, on the South
ern slope of Penn and Nittany Valleys, within,
perhaps, five miles of the Geographical Centre
of the State, where the land is limestone, fer
tile and beautiful. As place for practical
agriculture, nothing more favorable could be
desired; and it is sufficiently removed from
those intrusions and annoyances of town or
public place, so prejudicial to the pursuit of
study, or the security of well-managed farm
or garden.
Two hundred acres of this land was gener-
ously donated to the Institution by Gen j Janes
Irwin, with the privilege of purchasing one
hundred acres on each side of it, at any time
within five years, at sixty dollars an acre and
in the mean time, to have possession of the
whole. upon the payment of the interest upon
the value of the last mentioned 200 acres
The Board of Trustees took possession of the
whole, and have appropriated of it, to the ap-
pie and peach orchards, 21s acres TO small
ler fruits, So acres; to the garden and nurse
ry, 16t acres; and to the campus 12a acrcs.-
A system of record of all the doings on the
farm has been arranged, from which we extract
the following memorandum of what has been
already done
OF IMPROVEMENTS ON THE FARM.
30 acres have been grubbed and sprouted
$40 rods of fence rows cleared, grubbed, pick
ed and burnt; 67 acres of Wheat sown Sep
tember 1856, now good, put down in clover;
40 acres of corn planted spring of 1857; SIG
rods of hedge planted in 1856; 36O rods or
hedge in 1851 E; 325 rods of rail fence; 4S 900
nursery plants set out, comprising a full assort-
ment OF the most desirable nursery stock go
rods of seed beds of fruits, eedge plants. &c.
10000 plants of over 100 different sorts. re-
ceived as contributions, many of them intend
ed for the arboretum, and now set in reserve
beds, until the ground can be prepared 600
| apple trees set out in orchard rows 400 peach
do; 200, plums, apricot and nectarines do
$50 pear, standard and dwarf do; 200 cherry
1000 plants of nuts, berries, &C.; 1900 grape
vines in vineyard; 60 avenue naples 400
chestnut, larch, oak, pine and other Seeding
! timber trees, collected and to be planted in
lines, so as to give at sight the measure and
location of every part of the farm 500 pine,
spruce, fir, &C., to be planted for sheltering
hedge. OF these all are doing beyond expec-
tation, uuder the favoring influences of good
season, excepting only small portion of the
contributed plants, which were injured by de-
lay and exposure.
ON BUILDINGS.
One double-storied barn is finished and fit-
ted up, and has been in use parts of two sea-
sons; it is very capacious and much admired
for it's convenience. The farmers house is
also finished and part of the out BUILDINGS
For the college building, the cellars have been
excayated 5000 perch of superior building
stone, are quarried and on the grounds; three
gangs of brickmakers have been at work for
soma time, and the masons are about to COM
mence the walls. The delays occasioned by
uncertainty, up to the Goth of May, as to the
amount of funds which would be at the dispo-
sal of the Trustees, affected all work on the
farm and nurseries well as the buildings,
though to less extent. Work was done with
hired teams and tools, and temporary hands,
and therefore, under much disadvantage; most
of the ground being new and imperfectly
cleared, and yet with many stumps and roots
This account might be much enlarged by
detail, but it will serve to communicate an
idea of what the progress has been.
All this work has been done under the di-
rection and management of VIM. G. Waring,
Esq, practical horticulturist and farmer; in
whose skill and science the Board of Trustees
have the most entire confidence.
A contract has been entered into, for tho G.
rection of an edifice, calculated for the resi-
denceof Professors, lecture-halls and dormi-
tories for students, to be built OF stone, 1--WE
stories high, 2sS feet in front. with wings, and
to cost fifty-f1ve thousand dollars. This build
;nc is already in progress, and it is hoped that