The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1875-04-25
COLUM.BIA.,S IS. C.
Sunday Morning, April 20, 1s75..l

Sunday Morning, April 20, 1876,
Technical Education OF the Agricultural
Glass. ~
The interest Of the State which has
suffered most from neglect, cor rathe,
from. positive injury inflicted upon il
for nearly ten years past, is that of edu-
cation. The corruptions which have
prevailed, the odious and terrible wrongs
in which they have eliminated, have
been, perhaps, more provoking; but
nothing. has been 30 bad as to contem.
plate the overthrow of schools and col
leges, the deprivation of proper trimming,
schooling md breeding on the part OF
our ryouth. The streams have dried I'D
c: poisoned g. tho fountain heads. the
master sham of the day lis the public
school system, for which the property OF
the State has been 80 heavily mulcted.
The monster outrage upon true culture
is the prostitution and defilement of the
State University. It is encouraging to
notice, however, md pleasant to acknow-
lsdge, that in several sections of the
State this great interest has maintained
its Importance in the minds of the peo-
pie, and that a considerable measure OF
success has, notwithstanding NIL the
drawbacks with which they have had to
contend, been achieved in this matter.
1t is subject Of unfailing Importance.
We have, on several occasions, taken the
liberty of suggesting to tho only efficient
and organized body of substantial citi-
zens in the State-the Grangc-the nc
cessity and advantage of their moving in
behalf of the technical education of the
agricultural class. In connection with
this branch of topic of such deep and
widespread consequence to the people,
we have observed some thoughts of
merit In series CT articles published in
the Penn Monthly and issued from Phila-
delphia, few of which we will notice
A scientific agriculture, the writer
says, is about the last thing TINT any
people acquires; and yet, in view Of tho
relation of the life and happiness of the
people to the fertility of the soil, one of
the most important It demands, also,
the still more general training of the
faculties, even by branches which lilo
outside of the farmers own work, and
which shall bring the profession, as O
whole, up nearer to the level of liberally
educated men-alive to the large material
responsibilities that rest upon them as a
class, and fully awake to the discovery
of every possible means of discharging
them. Unhappily, by most unnatural
selection, the agricultural class in our
country is steadily drained of its most
promising elements, by sort of emigra-
ton to other industries. Its profession
is carried on in traditional plodding
fashion, which gives no opening for
youthful ambition, no scope for intel
leetual energy. The farmers son sees
no future before him in agriculture
worthy Of his striving-no ideal worthy
of absorbing his life. The only effeotual
remedy is to. be found in the elevation OF
agriculture to the rank of scientific
profession, through the gradual but
thorough training of the agricultural
class in the scientific principles
which underlie the art. But the
Agricultural College will come fa1
short of its great end, unless it con
form class within the community who
are at once enthusiasts for the work they
have to do, and fully awaketo the diff.
culties they must, encounter in doing it,
They must meet prejudices, which they
will either intensity or overcome accord
ing to the wisdom or unwisdom of thei,
action. They IRE called to become the
educators Of the whole farming class, tc
carry home to it the conviction that sci
entific knowledge is the key to its highest
success and prosperity, and to gradually
amend traditional methods or supplan,
them by better ones. BY agricultural
societies, farmers newspapers, State and
County conventions, and all the Other
methods which bring that class into
thorough contact with itself-if the ex
preston may be allowed educated
leaven must be mixed with the mea
It'll the whole is leavened."
The Louisiana Compromise.
Tho frantic dispatches of Marsha
Packard. complainipo Of q v;oIat;or u,