Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1876-05-12

the United States, educated or who shOul
have been educated at classical colleges.
only LAG, 1898, lawyers, 40, 1856 clergymer
1854; physicians and surgeons, 60 1888
while agriculturists are numbered by mi
lions and consequently should hold, as the
90, prominent privileges in the nationa
colleges; but they neither ask nor hold an,
exclusive privileges. All the useful arts
all mechanical and industrial employments
are hopefully recognized and offered an i'm
partial support. Classical studies are By
no means ignored. but are provided for al
those who have time to acquire them anC
who may have occasion for their future dis
play, and for those who are free from care
| and solcitude as to present and future
maintenance. Scientific knowledge, how.
ever. in spite of all doubts, is as sublime
and as beautiful as any other-so thought
Bacon and Newton and so thought Frank
lin and Agassiz-and being also both COM
monty and grandly useful it here has a
leading position, and what are usually es-
teemed as elegant and ornamental courses of
study, asked for by the present limited class
OF the so-called learned professions and by
gentlemen of leisure, come in as of second
ary Importance. as they must come, in the
field and in the workshop, in the counting
room and in the factory.
1t is proposed to offer the means for a
generous and sound education, not without
body for its feathers and with steady
leaning toward such branches as will assist
young men in their work when they reach
their ultimate field of duty. and prevent
them from forsaking that field because of its
monotony or because of its exclusion from
all the graces and attractions ofthe schools
Is 1t IN vain to seek to embellish the daily
life Of physical labor with something of the
luster Of intellectual discipline? The brain
Is certainly not to be wholly neglected be-
cause 1t cllngs to such homo bred allies as
bone and muscle, which do more and far
better work when wisely guided by we'll
trained head.
| find an account of fifteen farms attach
ed to the national colleges. which average
three hundred and fifty acres each, and they
are rapidly getting to be farms of model ex-
cellence, where many Of the most valuable
experiments are made and where, to some
extent, the best breeds of stock are con-
stantly exhibited. What is done is not hid
under bushel. These farms with stock
and tools are expensive, and some of the
colleges are yet without the requisite funds
TO secure or to maintain them. Several of
the States have already supplied these def
ciencies. The aid here proposed would en-
able all to move more satisfactorily IN this
direction, while 1t would furnish resources
for more efficient work in many other re-
spects.
Ii the number of college students propos-
ing to be farmers is less than 1t should be,
80 much the more need is there of creating
and cultlvating taste in that direction
and 1t must never be forgotten that lack of
means for long terms of study makes all
colleges almost inaccessible to the vast ma
jority of mankind. IL requires also some
intrepiilty, even for boys INJURED 10 labor,
to avow thai they are preparing TO work
with their hands. even with skilled hands,
a well a. with brains. among associates,
many Of whom are rather too proudly set
ting out to work and shine only with the
latter but the number attending the ma
tional colleges with such earnest purposes
Is much larger than j. supposed or than
make any proclamation Of their intentions
in advance, and the facilities for obtaining
all the present available theoretical and
technical knowledge of agricultural science
has been. IN most cases, and will be in all,
literally provided.
According to the late census, our entire
male population, ten years old and over,
was II 25S. .-66. and ) .525 SOB Of these were
engaged in agriculture, besides 100 200 fe-
males 50 engaged. Almost One-half of our
whole population, it thus appears, are de-
voted 10 agriculture. They have, there
fore, in numbers alone paramount claims to
consideration. and beyond such claims there
underies the vital problem Of a future sup
ply Of cheap food. upon the abundance Of
which hinge the growth and maintenance
of great people with great and constant
~ expanding wants. No extent of land
can be sufficient without sufhciency Of
competent and willing labor. The vocation
Of farming and husbandry must be made
both attractive and lucrative, or 1t will be.
as 1t has been, renOunced at every decade by
an Increasing number of deserters. The
pursuit of money getting alone-all perva-
ding A. the passion NAV be-ls unsati stac-
to- and those who furnish food for the
whole body of mankind may reasonably de-
mand some share of mental susteuance, or
at least may demand the crumbs which
drop from the tables Of the learned.
The PRODUCTIVE POWER OF FARMS DECREASING.
IL is also a fact well ascertained that. as
whole, our soil is being rapidly reduced In
it, productive power | have heretofore
called attention TO this fact as exhibited in
every census return since 1910 Our hus-
handry appears to be based upon the wants
Of the nineteenth century alone and refuses
t. speculate on the wants of the twentieth.
Present profits. not the increased and fixed
value of farms. absorb attention. By our
too general habit of uncompensated crop
ping it Is plain that we are steadily ex-
hausting the fertility of the land iG the new
as well as the older States The wheat re-
gIon retreats Westwardly as relentlessly as
the march Of some fearful epidemic in the
Ia nd Of tho Durffaua fhatr alv do
pendent for corn as they were in the DAYS of
Miles Standish, when Indians furnished
scant supply. and now the grasshOpper
plague seems on the wing. challenging even
the Westward empire of the farmer.
The census of 1870. notwithstanding the
evidences of rapid development of wealth
and population, disclOses some unwelcOme
facts. With much larger acreage and
millions more OF population, as compared
with 1860, there was only a small gain
in wheat. oats, butter and potatoes, while
there was an absolute dlminutlon, incredi-
bic as it may appear, of cattle. swine,
corn, rye, rice, tobacco, cotton. cheese,
sugar and molasses. Improved implements
now enable farmers to cultivate double the
quantity of land cultivated by their fathers.
one man with the reaper doing the work of
ten men, and thereby securing with less
labOrers greater present profits but by this
grasping. broad-gauged husbandry. by too
inirequent rotation of crops, by too little
reliance upon manual labor and home
made manure, and the dire exhaustion
which follows the expectation of cereal
crops. they also secure larger deterioration
of the soil. and the general crop per acre
| year by year grows perceptibly less. Our
fast and thoughtless mschine-f farming
makes US forget that the earth can ever
grow old and uniruitiul.
| Surely it will not be improper to give
/ some heed to the lesson brought to our
notice by such ominous and lrrefutable facts.
/ The only amendment possible is through a
better and more scientific treatment of the
! soil as well as higher and better treatmen.
of those who are to be its future proprietors.
Is there any mode by which that result can
be more generally and successfully pro-
NOTED than through the establishment of
these national colleges Certainly none are
offered, none are visible, at home or
abroad.
Let it be borne in mind that the products
of farms depend not more upon their fer
tility than upon the intelligence OF their oc-
cupants. Ireland is land of great fertility,
but has not been Overstocked with schools
while Scotland is far less fertile, and has a
much rougher climate, but it has long been
famed for the universally of its schools.
The result is that Ireland has not been free
from famine, and her population departs IN
droves to other lands while in Scotland,
Ger a. the ills o. life victorious
you not only cannot starve a Scotchman, but
the population thrive by intelligent in
dustry and is constantly on the increase.
Notwithstanding the immense interest in
farms and farmers, theGeneral Government,
possibly still the largest land-holder Of the
world, has yet done little. very
little, for agriculture, even less
than many European governments. Only
! Is 900 600 acres. all told, have
been granted under the land grant to the
national colleges of 1862. and this covers
all that has been done in behalf of higher
education. not only for the millions engaged
in agriculture, but for the 2,7O7.4
persons engaged in mechanical. manu-
featuring, and mining pursuits. Com
merce, with its lighthouses. harbors
breakwaters, buoys, coast-surveys, and
naval protection, has sometimes absorbed
| moro in a single wear than ALL that for