Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-01-01
A1ritultmral.
Agricultural Education.

Senator Morrill's recent speech in favor ol
the increase of land grants to ayr cultura
colleges has revived the old discussion re
specting the actual value of these institutions.
which began with their very existence We
doubt whether there is any subject where N
men hold more divergent opinions; ard a
table of popular estimate of value would
probably include those who regard the col
leges as utterly valueless and these who con
slider them the most beneticent advance in
educational matters the world has vet seen
The character of the colleges, as we'll as their
success, differs widely in different sections and
even in adjoining States. In New England
they have for the most part, developed as
schools of technology, training their pupils
in the arts of the workshop and the factory
at the West they handle the problems OF
ditch ng and draining, of fencing and build
ing, that are of such vital importance to
newly settled communities in the Middle
States both these classes of study are includ-
ed in the curriculum. and agriculture Itself
in literal sense receives a larger share Of
attention.
In chronological training, the success of ag-
ricultural colleges has been all their warmcst
friends could desire The pressing need of
such education in this country is plinlullv
manifest to everybody who has occasion to
employ skilled labor Belgium and Germa-
ny, by the thorough education Of working
men, are absorbing the manufacturing bust
ness of all Europe. England is waking up
to her deficiency in this respect, as she finds
various branches of manufacture leaving her
shores, and is making prodigious efforts, in
her slow and clumsy way, to educate her
woIkmen for their daily tasks Here. till
ho date Of
there were few if any educational establish
ments where by could learn the use of the
mechanical implements of any trade, or even
of the minor professions. If only by the
great impulse these colleges have given to
training workmen who thoroughly under
stand the use of their tools, the worth of the
system to the nation shall be measured. the
outlay will be amply repaid. There has been
already large accession to the number Of
well educated civil and mining engineers
architects, and constructing machnists grad
uated at these Institutions We have need
of such men while diamond mine swindlcs
and frame Mansards are possible.
But whether the agricultural colleges will
ever educate farmers is still an open ques-
ton. The sons of farmers enter the colleges,
glad and willing to learn. There are acres
cultivated by them experimentally, under io-
struction, and with cheerful industry. They
do their work well, and it is all duly record
ed to their credit, and whatever is produced
goes toward the support of the il stitution
They learn good deal of the theory # ayr
culture and not a little of its practice. Bat
they rarely become farmers. When youth
has his mind fairly stored with all that the
professors of botany and agricultural chem
lstry have to teach him, he is apt to seek a
better market for his knowledge than the
farm presents. 1t is not that such knowledge
is not useful on a farm, but that it is of more
profitable use elsewhere. Nevertheless while
learning the best WAYS of conducting ri
cultural operations, the student has doubtless
criticised tbs Anticipated methods of the pa
ternal heritage. Improvements are suggest
ed and adopted at the homesteads of the
pupils: their soils are analysed, manures Sc
lected, crops varied in accordance with more
recent knowledge, and the great work of In
provement in agriculture spreads from a
thousand new centers after every college
vacation. The old notion that book learning
was worthless to farmers has almost faded
out OF thei- miLds; the belief that men W no
cultivate the soil are mere ignoramuses is no
longer an article of faith with college pre-
fess6fs. The agricultural colleges are doing,
on the whole, good work; ard they de serve
better expectation and more hearty sup
port than they have yet received from the
entire community .-Iribune.