The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1876-09-23
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EDUCATED FARMERS.

If we were asked to point out any espe-
cial fact as denoting beyond all others our
rapid progression in knowledge and in
civilization, we should select the strong
tendency everywhere manifest to abolish
empiricism in all pursuits of life. 1t is
not very long ago that the physician adj
ministered his remedies blindly, and knew
less of the functions of the heart than
does his modern descendant of the spleen
and gall bladder. Meteorology, most
tickle Of all sciences, based as it is on the
most changeable of all things, the weather,
has within very few years made marvel
Gus strides; and we are certainly advanc-
ing to a point when it will be as easy to
foretell the rain and storm of tomorrow as
to remember the fine weather of yesterday.
Even cookery is no longer to be the science
in which unaccurately compounded in
gradients, under constantly varying con-
ditons, are supposed by some pleasant
fiction to yield invariable results, for has
not college been endowed, to educate
our future chefs de cuisine? Thumb rules
in every trade are now secuted by intelli-
gent working men. The world has shaped
itself into a gigantic point of interroga-
ton; "why " is the question of the hour,
and faith in things earthly is confined only
to those who, like the deuded partisans OF
Kelley and others of his ilk, mistake ignor-
ance of that which is possible for belief
in that which is not.
Of all the sciences, none within recent
years has so quickly emancipated itself
from the fogs of empirical conjecture as
that of agriculture. Up to the end of the
last century even, people believed that air,
water, oil, and salts were the sources of
plant nutrition. Walerius, Bergmon, Pal
issy, Davy, De Saussure, and Sprengel con
tributed discovery after discovery, inves-
tigation after investigation, but their work
was scattered and little known outside
their laboratories. 1t was reserved for the
genius of Liebig to unite all these frag-
ments of truth; but it was not until 1910
that he produced his great work "Chem-
istry in its Application to Agriculture and
Physiology" and thus gathered in con-
crete from the materials which are the
basis of now great and rapidly growing
science. 1t is hard to realize that agricul-
tural chemistry has found its application
for but 26 years, so clearly are its benefits
before US in tangible form. But on the
other hand, this only serves to indicate to
US how vast must be the results yet to
come, when agriculture, through the
fundamentally of it's knowledge, shall
have become in its turn as exact as it's
sister sciences, and as susceptible of being
taught and learnt in the same manner as
they. And to attain this much desired
end, our schools and colleges, under the
guidance of far-seeing men, are doing
splendid work.
The youngest of our universities, Cornell,
established an agricultural department
three years ago, under the charge of Pro-
fessor Roberts, the farm consisting of $50
acres, in not over good condition. Upon
this tract of land the whole science of
raising crops, as well as the business Of
managing a farm, is taught with thor
oughness which we doubt has ever been
exceeded. Eighteen square rods of clover,
for instance, are set apart for eighteen
different modes of treatment with fertili-
zers. In the experiments with corn, three
rows of each kind, or of each mode of
manuring, or of the different modes of
management in other respects, extend
-. al
mental strips of oats and wheat; and thus
every method Of cultivation of all the
farm products incident to our climate is
practised directly before the student, who
is required personally to perform the labor
necessary in connection Herewith. The
results of the experiments are carefully
recorded and stored away until sufficient
shall have been gathered, over number
of seasons, to justify the determining of
accurate averages.
Besides this the students are taught
complete system of accounts. Every hour
of labor hired, every product of farm sold,
is infinitely registered. The food which
live stock consumes is recorded on one side
and balanced yearly by the market value
estimated by skilled butcher. So that,
in this way, the gains or losses, not only
of the farm as a whole, but of every
branch, are known with the utmost ac-
curacy. Every student is required to
become proficient in this account keeping.
Eack keeps his books separately, and
determines estimated values; and as he
may sell his own labor to the farm, out
side the time required of him, which is
I,,t half 10,
the week, he is directly interested in the
task. Besides the farm, there is garden
of six acres, conducted under the same
admirable system; and in addition, lectures
on practical agriculture are given four
times we ekly by Professor Roberts. The
Country Gentlemen, to which we are
indebted for these facts, states that the
number of agricultural students is still
too small, so that there seems TO be abun-
dant opportunity for all who may desire
to acquire thorough and most valuable
education. Certain it is that such instruc-
ton is most urgently needed in this coun-
try. 1t has become too much the fashion
for young men to crowd into the great
cities, and there to exc out lives behind
desks and counters which should be spent
in developing the vast resources of the
thousands of square miles wherein the
richest soil on earth awaits the pillow share.
In the Centennial Exposition are exhibited
actual glass enclosed sections of prairie
soil with the black unctuous loan extend
ing downwards below the reach of the
deepest furrow. Go look at that superb
exhibit in Agricultural Hall, and think of
the possibilities which educated farmers,
cultivatng such land, mi ght accomplish
Think of it, stalwart young men, who
mediate coming into the city after the
present harvest is garnered, to find work
where there is none to be had. Expend
your labor and means at Cornell Amherst,
Dartmouth, and other like colleges, and
obtain such an education as we have de-
scribed; then ego West" pre-empt your
land, and start on the high road to indie
pendence and ultimate fortune.
Scientific american.