Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1875-06-02
Agricultural Education.


Mr.. Joseph n. Sturteyant, one Of the well.
known Sturtevant brothers, Ayrshire breed.
ers, Of birmingham, Mass, sends the follow
ing extract from the Transactions Of the
Scottish Highland Agricultural Society to
the Country Gentleman;
From the exceptional educational advantages
which Scotland has 80 long enjoyed, agricultu
rsts in this country have been greatly superior in
point Of instruction 10 those Of most other coun-
tries, and II is also important to note that the In
crease in the value Of landed property in Scotland
has been exceptionally great II was shown about
three year, ago, from reliable statistics produced
by government when the Irish land question was
before Parliament that while the rental Of land in
Ireland had doubled during the previous hundred
years and that Of England tnpled, the rental Of
Scotland had increased seven fold In the same
time. There has heen, then In that space OF time
an increase in the value OF landed property In
Scotland Of FIVE hundred per cent, against an in
crease Of two hundred per cent in England and
one hundred per cent in Ireland. This Is a r.
m0rtabls fact and there can b. no doubt that he
explanation qfH IL 10 be found cliefy IN he r1sfly
superior school svsteu which Scotland hos pos
sossed and IN NE Intelligence and enierprsc ,chich
il has been he means 81 derelopiHg among her ag-
ric1litrai classes"
Mr. Sturteyant then goes on TO comment
upon the decline in American agriculture.
and the necessity Of better education for
farmers. lie says, truly
"our fathers have gathered the cream Of the
earth-leavng 10 this generation the subsoil
mostly intact, and an impoverished coating Of
loan for the seed-bsd 1t is chiefly by the acqui-
stion and use Of knowledge, not within the grasp
NJ our fathers, that we may hope 10 repair the In
jury wrought by them, and put our farms in
condition to yield satisfactory profits With
wasting farming there is the necessary wasting Of
human beings, who look 10 the farm for support
As a stream in dry season affords each day q d.
minished volume Of water, 80 the wasting farm
steals away the funds that give means Of cduca-
ton, 50 that the farmer is reduced to n non-sup-
porting income, and he must needs give over
scholarship, leisure. etc, TO other classes Of
society"
Mr.. Sturtevant appreciates the terrible diff
Guilty of making an uneducated. or but
slightly educated class understand the neces-
sity for better education for their children,
and observes that there are farmers and
neighborhoods of farmers in every consider
able section of New England, that require'a
new impulse from without, need an education
forced upon them, in order that they retain
respectable position in life's struggle"
But how is this TO be done ? How can an
education be forced upon town or
school district against the will Of its voters
Under our American system of government
the thing is impossible; and yet without the
education there is not the slightest possibil-
ity Of an improved agriculture
Our sole hope in this matter comes from
the consoling fact that illiterate farming pays
worse and worse every year, and that as edu-
cation penetrates around the edges of cur
agricultural districts, or spreads from village
centers into the surrounding country, the
educated farmers will so increase the produc-
tiveness of their farms that they can make
good profit at prices that will not enable the
ignorant farmer to live, and win so freeze
him out" and allow the land to pass into the
hands of the educated farmers educated
sons. In this way inefficient farmers will be
reduced TO the condition of farm laborers,
and upon well conducted farms will be com.
PEELED to learn good farming. Their chill
dren, also, will be brought under different
set of influences, and have an opportunity
that their parents never would give them to
acquire knowledge, and thus restore them
selves to the position Of independent cultiya-
tors Of the soil
In view of the great national need of an
improved and progressive agriculture, it is
patriotic duty for every educated farmer to
make farming pay. lie had better be doing
that than to be writing for the press or max
ing speeches at agricultural meetings, though
that is good use for his spare hours, if he
has any. The only possible way, we repeat,
under our system of government, to bring
any effective pressure upon our scrub farm
ers is TO freeze them out by surrounding
them with circles Of well-managed farms and
underselling them till they cannot make
cent. SO long as they can make a bare liv-
ing, they will be content with that, and never
make an effort for improvement. To "speak
it plain" we have got class of people, even
in New England, that are but a trile better,
more enterprising or energetic, than the
crackers or "poor whites of the South
They are the men who make our poor butter
and who are satisfied with one hundred
pounds of it per year to the COW. They may
be an independent peasantry" but they
are far from being their country's pride"