Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1859-01-22
.IGRfCLL TLRAL EDUCI TION.

meetings for the discussion of some of the
more important topics connected with agricul-
ture, and in the latter town an agricultural Ii
brary has been formed which cannot fail of CON
ferring much benefit upon the members of the
association. In Cheshire county, New Hamp
shire, the farmers are awakening to proper
sense of their own interests. BY reference to
an article from the Ne,c Engldnd Farmer, which
is Reproduced in another column, it will be
seen that the members of the county agricultu-
raj society are engaged in holding a series of
meetings, for the discussion and considera-
ton of important topics connected with their
business, in the several towns.
Farming is the greatest interest in the United
States and yet it is the least understood and in
diligently conducted. Until within very few
years, and in some places even now, the farmer
has boon content to plod along in the same
never varying routine that his ancestors for
generations pursued before him. If he could
pillow as straight furrow, NOW as smoothly.
and hoe as rapidly as his father his agricultural
education was complete. To farm well no fur
Their education than "to read, write and cypher
as far as the rule of three" was thought neces-
sary or profitable. The farmer who took an
agricultural paper and deviated from the beaten
track TO improve upon some suggestions there
in contained was laughed at as "book farmer"
and his credit nightly shaken. Experience
was the only teacher whose instructions were
thought to be of any account.
While such was the condition of the farming
interest young men, the sons of farmers, and
having some aspirations for learning were not
content with the modcum of knowledge doled
out to those who were expected to tread in the
footsteps of their not very illustrious predeces-
sors. In comparing themselves with their fel-
lows, who were better educated and had min
gled more in society, they felt their defcien-
cies 50 kecnly they resolved that as soon as
they were Of age they would seek some employ
mcnt wherein they could improve their minds
and manners as well as their purses. The idea
of spending their lives in mere mechanical
drudgery. following on year after year without
increasing their knowledge nor bcttering their
low ideas of farming as a business that has
done more to prevent our Young men from re-
naming at home and tilling the soil. content
with the healthy avocations and sure rewards of
a farmers life, than all other influences combin-
ed Labor of itself, mere physical drudgery
unrelieved by thought or intelligence, is not a
pleasing prospect in the eyes of any young man
who has any aspirations for Improvement, or
any ambition TO equal the swiltest of his fellows
in the race Of life.
But change in the right direction has al
raj knowledge, both theoretical and practical. is
springing into wide existence Books treat
ing of agriculture in general and its various
specialities in particular are daily multiplying.
and newspapers devoted to the same subjects
have an extensive circulation 1t was long Since
ascertained in our manufacturing establishments
that intelligent educated labor was far more
profitable for both parties than that of ig
norant hands. And the mechanical industry of
the country is chiefly indebted for its present
state OF advancement to the intelligence and in
genuity Of those employed in subordinate posi-
tons. Some of the greatest inventors of New
England sprang from the most humble ranks
of operatives but they were educated better
than the average of young men of the same pc
Rod engaged in farming, and were thus enabled
rapidly to advance in the path to fortune and to
fame.
1t gives us pleasure to see the farmers. who
have SO long held back through the sheer force
OF prejudice, beginning to awake to the impor-
lance of educated labor. In several of the Yves
tern States agricultural schools and COLLEGES
have been established and endowed, and their
potent influence will soon be felt in the increasing
rapidity of agricultural improvement. In New
England we have no such institutions. As the
cheapest and most effective substitutes for such
schools we commend these county and town or
CARNATIONS for agricultural Improvement The
good that will grow out of them if properly
conducted can hardly be over-estimated.
Such meetings enable farmers owning like
soils and living in the same climate, subject to
similar obstacles, casualties and exposures, de-
pendent upon the same markets, and every way
similarly situated, to meet and relate their ex-
periences, compare notes, detail the results of
their several experiments, and thus determine
with some near approach to accuracy the modes
of farming most profitable for them to pursue.
The several sorts of grasses, cereals and roots.
the different kinds of stock and the sub-yarie-
ties Of these different kinds, the time and man.
ner of planting, cultivating and harvesting the
crops, the cheapest and most effective imple
ments TO be used, feeding and sheltering stock
in the winter, and hundreds of other similar
topics, will all form fruitful themes for study
and discussion. In this way every man gets
the results and benefits of the experience of his
neighbors and townsmen,-informatio exactly
suited to his wants and necessities
In many towns lyceums are held during the
winter evenings where various questions are
discussed, and essays read. BY substituting
questions for discussion and topics for essays of
a practical nature connected with agriculture
for such as are usually considered, the whole
of farmers lyceum would be set in
motion. In this connection it may be proper to