Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-08-21
aGRICULTURAL EDUOATION.

There Is nothing in which farmers and
the public generally should be more inter-
estsd than in the professional education of
the owners and cultivators of the soil. 1t
is impossible to decrease its natural fruit
fnlness by bad management and not serious
y affect the cost of living of every class in
the community. Bread and meat come
from cultivated land, and whatever dimin-
ishes fertility enhances The cost of mans
daily food. We are pleased to see by a let
ter published in the New York Tribune,
that the Michigan Agricultural College is
doing good work in educating the sors Of
farmers in that State. The writer says:
"Inlreply to the qaestion-Can student
earn enough here, and by teaching during
the long vacation, which is in winter, to
carry lin through the college course
was told that If be came with means to sup
port him one year, he could earn the rest.
After the midday recess | saw the students
at work in the garden, and in excaVating
for and laying large sewer through the
grounds in front of the main buildings.
This sewer was TO provide for the waters
of an extensive tract of land outside of the
college grounds, and was made of 15-inch
Tile, and covered. Frequent showers had
caused q suspension of the work in the hay
fields, and made that in the ditch unpleas-
ant, but the students gave no signs of not
going on for that reason. They appeared
willing at their work, and as no exceptions
are made, the usual causes of discomfort
appeared to have been avoided. Even the
representative from Japan, sent here by his
Government, and who will perhaps be Min
lister of Agriculture of that nation, must do
his three hours work every working day
with the rest, The whole number
of students, rs appears by the
last catalogue, was 131 four OF
them being ladies. The general appear
ance and bearing of these young men at
tracted my attention, and l was favorably
impressed with their show of health and
gentlemanly condnct. Learned that they
were mostly the sons of farmers, and their
ages would average nearly orquite 20 years,
and that the privilege of working on Satur-
day was so eac erly seized upon that nearly
$1,000 was paid last year for work perform
ed on that day. This is significant, as
showing that the students desire work as
the means of paving their way, and that the
institution has been quite succe ssful, view
We believe that youth from sixteen to
twenty years old on a good farm here in
Tennessee, by working three hours day
for five days in a week, aud having Satur-
day to work for wages, might pay fair
price for his board and tex books during
college terms. Public funds or the gov
&c init
By this simple, economical arrangement,
one hundred young men ia Tennessee
might obtain scientific education on farms
by the wise union of work aud study where
one is now able to graduate at any college.
College learning costs too much for the sons
Of POOR farmers and mechanics. A more
economical system Of education is greatly.
needed, and ought TO be adopted at once in
this no de State for the benefit Of its humble
industrious children. Let Us combine honest
labor with earnest study, and pay as we go.
Industrial, m ,ntal, moral aud soci i Guitar
is demanded by young America. 1t is the
oil that lubricates the wheels Of progress.
and the force that perpetuates steady ad-
vance and improvement in all the future.
Our youth must grow up in virtue and use
full knowledge, or 60 down in vice, crime
and ignorance, which is the parent of both.
Nine-tenths of all our schools should be on
farms and connected with labor, arts and
sciences. No youth te;ween six
years of age and twenty, now en-
ploys his o. her time to the best advantage.
With the best educational system that can
be devised and invented, how much might
be learned and acquired in fourteen years,
from six to twenty? Is any trade or pro-
% fession brought 70 perfectionP How, or
where, or when, shall it be masttrsdP VINO
acquired IN his childhood the great art of
learning any thing useful to the very best