Smyrna times., 1860-11-08
Agricultural Education.

Among the many evidences we meet of i'm
proved agriculture, that branch Of industry has
not yet become sufficiently attractive TO check
the excessive influx of our rural population into
cities and village and OF our capable young
men into the overstocked intellectual profess
siOns. We suppose the census taken this year
will also show what appeared by the prceed-
ing one, that in many parts Of the country the
towns alone grow, while the agricultural popu.
ation is either stationary or declining. The
greater extent to which science and mechani-
cal invention have abridged labor in other en-
ployments than it has been able 10 do in agri-
culture, ought to have wrought out a result
the reverse Of what we witness. In proper
ton as manufactured goods are produced with
less labor in proportion as the transportation
of commodities TO market is chea pencd, the in.
dustry which is released from these employ
ments should be devoted to the cultivation OF
the soil. 1t may be said that an absolute de.
cline of our agricultural population has taken
! place only in some of the older States, and il
may be in part accounted for by the emigra-
tion of those States to the cheaper aud fertile
lands ofths West. But after all circumstances
in mitigation of the evil have been allowed for
it will remain true, that one ofthe most promi
nent facts in the physical development of this
country is the accelerated growth of our ur-
ban, as compared with our rural population.
Among the causes 10 which this is partl,
owing, one of the most prominent ia an incl
dental perversion of the better advantages fol
education now enjoyed by our youth. We Dc
not complain that knowledge increases thu
self-respect of our young men, aud creates
distaste for stupid drudgery, in which all i
done by muscle and nothing by mind. Wha
} we do complain Of is, that the high education
they acquire is msma ma ged by an engraftini
on It's scIons, which are not native to the tree
Young people should not learn 10 dispise labor
but perceive how science may dignity it b
improved methods, which it requires INTEL
gence to adopt Our farmers sons, instead {
Q acquiring an itching for trade because the
e think it m ore genteel, or for the profession
e because they think them more intellectual, an
j, therefore more respectable, ought TO be mad
c to perceive what is entirely true, that agricu
e ture is one of the most suitable employmen
0 for educated men, and that the knowledge
B- chemistry, animal and vegetable physiolog
e entomology and meteorology, which form i
It scientific basis, elevate it to the rank of Ii
Dr. eral profession when it is intellgently pursue
is Another reason why so many young me
forsake the plow, and flock TO the cities al
village, is the lack of taste and refinement
"a and about our farmers homes. We do not a
sh wise our rural population to build, decorate a
's- furnish beyond their means. But is il I
s. much TO ask thar an air of taste shall surrou
their homesteads; that neat but inexpensl
es fences and tidy gates shall iAclose them; Il
,ut ornamental trees and shrubs shall render th
ad ground attractive; that fl overs shall bio
no about their windows and along their walks
II These cost but little except labor, wh
ion ought to be so pleasant as to be considered
by recreation, and they would fll the minds
70 growing boys and girls with pleasant assoc
tions, which would IKE their homes se
a VERY different from the sIOveuly and rspull
la sbodes from which somany are glad to escr
While our farmers were thus embellisl
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