Los Angeles daily herald. [volume] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1873-1876, 1874-03-04
Agricultural Education.

we are among those VINO DelleVe In
the policy and practicability of teach
ing agricultural as an art in our State
University. We believe the act of
our national Government in donating
to the States and Territories land for
the purpose of establishing agricul-
tural and mechanic art colleges was
one of the best and wisest acts ever
passed. Thatsome of the States ale
wisely administering the means thus
donated to them and reaping the
benefits intended by raising up class
of young men to become practical and
useful instructors of the great masses
of mechanics proves the wisdom of
the national Legislature in this
respect. That some of the States are
failing to reap the full measure of the
benefit intended through the incom-
petence or indifference of the agents
to whom they have committed the
administration of this trust, does not
in the least detract from the character
of the national legislation OH the SUBJ
ject. Our own State has supplement-
ed the national legislation by a good
act providing for carrying out the OBJ
jects of the national Congress but we
fear mistake has been made in select
ing the agents to carry out the provis-
ions of the fundamental act.
1t is hardly to be expected that
lawyers, doctors or merchants, who
have but few interests in common
with agriculturists, would be able to
comprehend and provide for a system
of agricultural or mechanical educa-
ton suited to the wants of agricul-
turists and mechanics. 1t would be
considered the hight of folly to select
u farmer or a mechanical engineer to
execute a law establishing a medical
college or law school. The farmer
and mechanic, as individuals and
citizens, may be in every way model
men; they may be above the average
of their class in intelligence and
general business capacity, but their
occupations naturally absorb that
intelligence and capacity, to the ex-
clusion of medicine and law, and
incapacitate them for providing for
the education of physicianso or lawyers.
The correctness of this proposition
will at once be admitted by all who
give it q moments reflection, and
none will see the force of it sooner or
clearer than the doctors and lawyers
themselves There is no proposition
more generally admitted than that
the education of lawyers should be
directed by lawyers of experience and
skill in the profession. So of physic-
ians, ministers of the gospel, and all
other classes, including agriculturists
and mechanics. Our University is
intended for place where all
branches of education shall be taught,
but as the nucleus around which the
University is to grow up is the nation
al donation for the benefit of agricul-
ture and the mechanic arts, our Legis-
lature very properly provided that
prominence should always be given
to those branches of education, and
that those to whom the execution of
the law should be intrusted should
always consider the agricultural and
mechanic art colleges as primarily
entitled to the benefits of the Con-
gressional donation, as objects of their
special care and regard. Upon the
general principles enunciated' above
and of universal application, while the
Board of Regents of the State Uni
versity should be mixed Board,
representing all classes and profess
si0ns, agriculture and the mechanic
arts should at least be prominent
ly and proportionately represented.
Otherwise it cannot be expected that
these subjects will command the at
tention of the Board which their inn
portance demands, and which it was
intended they should by the Legisla-
ture, or that the Board will compre-
bend and provide for their necessities.
In looking over the Board of Regents,
consisting of twenty-one members, we
find that there never has been but one
practical farmer and one practical
mechanic OH the Board, and we have
often noticed that these were seldom
in their seats at the meetings. Under
such circumstances is it strange that
agricultural education should come to
be regarded as failure by those who
have been selected to direct the man
agement of our University?
ART CULTURE NEEDED.
California, above all other States,
needs and would be most benefited by
practical school Of agriculture, of
mines and mechanic arts. The unde-
veloped resources and the new and
peculiar conditions of those resources,
demand practical skillful and intelli-
gent management for their develop
ment. The peculiar location and
climate of our country require extern
sive and general irrigation and recla-
nation systems, to inaugurate and
accomplish which demand the highest
science and engineering ability. In
deed, the field for experiment in
agriculture in this State, for practical
trained skill in the direction and
| development of the mechanic arts and
mining and civil engineering, is I'M
limited, and the future prosperity of
the State is to great extent involved
in the good or bad management of
these great physical questions. How
important then that the direction
of the education of our young men,
who are to handle these practical sub
jects in the future should be intrusted
to those who themselves, from the
nature of their occupations, are sup
posed best to comprehend them. Let
us have proper proportion of farmers
and mechanics in the Board OF
Regents of the State University