Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1869-01-01
BY eur Agricultural Editor.
Agricultural Education.

We hear much said about agricultural ed
ucation, and states and nations are doing
much to advance that cause. As long ago
as 1853 President Hitchcock Of Amherst Col
lege, at the request Of Col. NJ. p. Wilder,
president of the Massachusetts, Senate made
very elaborate and valuable report of 533
schools and colleges devoted to agriculture
which he had examined during an extended
tour through the various countries of Eu-
rope.
We have in this cOuntrya very few schools
where the elements Of scientific agriculture
are taught as such but there are many in
which several abstract sciences. such as bot
any, geology, and comparative physiology.
which if properly applied constitute the real
elements of agricultural science are taught
We have also Agricultural Colleges springing
up all over the land like mushrooms, but
whether they will become powerful for the
advancement of the cause Of education or
popular with the people remains to be deter
mined. The liberal congressional appropriation
has brought many of them into existence and
has opened a wide field for experiment in
that direction. Just at the present. the col
leges of Massachusetts and Michigan ave the
only ones that can be said to have become
sufficiently popular 10 warrant the belief that
they will receive fair trial before being con-
demned as unworthy the patronage Of the
class for whose benefit they are and were de-
signed. Cornell University at Ithaca, n. Y.
which has just been got in operation, has an
agricultural department, and is the most rich |
ly endowed and fully equipped institution in
the country in to which agricultural education |
is made speciality. Our own state Agricul- |
tural College, although not a school in which |
terracuiture is the one, or even a leading idea, |
offers to young men who propose to engage in |
the business of tillage of the soil concomitant |
arts, much valuable instruction,-more per-
haps for the cost, than any of the others nam
ed. 1t is to be regretted that among the
many young men Of the State who are to con-
stitute the hardy yeomen Of the next genera
ton, so few are found willing to avail them
selves of the opportunities so generously ten
dered them by the nation and State.
But there is back Of and underlying this
apathy an intense prejudice against what is
termed book farming, which is nothing less
nor more than prejudice against all educa-
ton excerpts the merest rudimentary. but
which the mass of farmers are nevertheless a
little chary about avOwing in broad general
terms, choosing rather to vent their spleen up
on the one weak point which they have con-
temptously named book farming The ques-
tion-what is book farming ?-may and will
be asked in this connection, and we propose
to answer it as we understand it. We have
in one library quite number of books devot-
ed to the subject Of Agriculture. Most Of
them bear evidence on their faces that thew
were written by practical men. who were in
earnest in conducting and recording their ex-
periments: some of which are evidently en-
pirical and of but little value while some |
others do not come up TO the plane upon
which we stand, but which were probably !
long stride forward on the part of their au-
thors. As affording food for reflection, or as
suggestive of practicable notifications in our
process of tillage the least valuable one among
them is worth many times Its cost We are
bound to believe that the authors are honest.
and have given us the results Of their obser-
yations yet we are equallyIbound to critical
ly examine the whole rational. in search of {
errors Of data or paralogisns, before we I'M
accept them as guides to rrac-
tice. Ii may, Indeed, bequestioned whether ]
in the present state of the science of agricul-
ture any authors work should be implicitly
followed /; and Just here 1t seems to us is the y
great rock of oifense over which our practical
farmers stumble. They do not exercise their =
common sense, and profit by that part of an :
authors theories or experiments that in the
light of their own experience and knowledge. "
md in subOrdination to their own situation ',
md the soil they till may he made avail Il
Ible rejecting all else; but they either adopt t,
II reject the whole together, either course be-
ng perhaps equally unjustifable He who
hus adopts anothers plan is book farmer,
nd he who rejects is often as unwise as the
Their. n
The first step towards securing that system
{ agricultural education that is indespensa- Is
lie to US as State, if we would perpetuate le
ur institutions rather than sell out. az whole Al
owns are now doing to ileterste foreigners a a
TO awaken in our midst an enlightened pro- S.
fc sentiment on the subject. u
How this is TO be done may and ought to =
ngage the most earnest thoughts Of our "
tatesmen and philanthropists. 1t is a burn q
~ shame and lasting disgrace to the people az
Vermont, who are almost exclusively en- b
aged in agricultural pursuits, that they NJ
ave done less TO secure to themselves the a.
dyantages of agricultural education than IN
ave the people Of any OF the neighboring tic
ates. We do not here allude simply to the G,
iucation of the schools, but to that more Ia,
sneral system which reaches the fathers as pc
ell as the sons,-the outgrowth of Iudi- 81
Gus system Of agricultural societies and Oh
rmers clubs under the fostering care of the an
tate. We alone Of all the New England b,
ates do absolutely nothing in this respect. ru
ve trust the day is not distant when the Go
rmers of Vermont will arise and secure Is
themselves the advantages for improve Go
EFT they 30 much need and so richly deserve
le matter is in their own hands.