The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1876-07-22
agricultural department.
CONDUCTED BY ALBERT CHAPMAN.
Agricultural Education and
Development.

mu nicatlOD Oi PRESIDENT buchanan,
published in the Farmer few weeks
ago, in which he discussed the very
important subject of agricultural edu-
cation, and pointed out the course
which he holds must be pursued. In or
der to secure the most perfect develop
ment of our agricultural resources.
The views which he there presents
are worthy of our careful consideration,
because of the source from which they
emanate, and because also of the fact
that they are Numerically opposed to
the present opinions and practice OF
the farmers of Vermont. The fact that
this difference of opinion exists, is con-
elusive evidence of the necessity for the
discussion which he has introduced,
and for that free interchange Of thought
and argument, which will bring out
distinctly the reasons upon which the
opinions of all parties are based.
If the opinions of the president OF
our agricultural college upon the sub.
ject of agricultural education and de-
velopment are correct, who can more
easily and conclusively demonstrate
the fact than he -: | trust he will be
willing to continue the discussion of
the subject, and give the farmers of
Vermont, through your columns, the
reasons for the faith there is in him,
and aid us in arriving at just conclu-
sions with regard to the matter
There are obvious fundamental prin-
ciples which must determine the de.
eision of the question, and will he tell
us upon what principles he POUNDS his
conclusions, that the education which
he advocates is calculated to fit young
men for the pursuit of agriculture If
understand him correctly, he argues
that the great want of this department
of business is a more general diffusion
of that kind of knowledge and develop
ment which our existing colleges af-
ford:
AS practical farmer cannot en-
dorse those opinions, and ask Pres.
Buck ham to give us the reasons for his
belief. cannot consistently withhold
my. own. / claim that an ordinary
collegiate course, though grant that
it develops manhood, and that it is
nearly indispensable 10 the member OF
the so-called learned professions, does
not qualify the student for the success
c,,lx 81 In,
tkat the kind of knowledge it affords is
not that required by the practical far
mer that the almost total neglect of
physical development in such course,
the long withdrawal of the student
from practical mental and physical
application, disqualify him for prac-
teal worker IN such a field that the
influences and associations by which he
is surrounded will surely engender a
dislike for the quiet of the farm, and
for that dilgent, persistent application
to Its labors. which success in any cal
ling demands hold that however
strong may have been the previous
predictions Of the student for an agri-
cultural life, that however much of
1.-The viger, the enterprise, the fresh
ness, the simplicity, which are born Of
the SOIL" he may have possessed in the
outset, he will be Invested of these by
the natural operation Of the conditions
to which he is subjected.
knowledge or mental discipline does
not necessarily At one for the pursuit of
agriculture, or for any industrial call
ing. TO be available, these must be
practical and adapted to the wants and
occupation of their possessor. This is
a rinciple which is universally accept
ed. No sane man ever prepares his
son for the practice Of law by educat-
ing him at a medical college, or for the
practice of medicine at a divinity
school. Those institutions, though they
develop manhood, do not develop prac-
Teal workers In those fields where the
knowledge which they impart can not
be applied to the accomplishment of
the object sought.
Both reason and observation teach
the practical farmers Of Vermont that
young man may be highly educated,
may he prodigy as mathematician,
may surpass Herschel as an astrono.
mer, may excel Blackstone in his lie.
gal attainments, an Edwards, n Scott
or Barnes rs student in divinity,
and yet b. utterly unqualified 10 gain
even respectable subsistence by the
pursuit of agriculture. The fair pre-
sumption Is that the student, who far
excels In any of these departments of
learning, is untitled for successful COM
petion Ia those callings which require
different development.
The most complete agricultural edu-
cation would not fit our sons for pro.
fe>sors Of the classics, or of the higher
mathematics, yet it would be just as
reasonable To expect this, as that the
kind OF knowledge required for those
professorsbips would fit them for agri-
culturists. An ordinary collegiate
course is not adapted to the wants OF
the farmer, not only because of the
kind of knowledge impaired but be-
cause 1t is not sufficiently liberal in Its
scope. Man is q complex being. He
has a mental, moral and physical ma.
ture to be developed. Any system o
education which practically ignores
the development of the physical pow
ers is defective, and though it may fl
men for the so.called learned profes
sions, or English noblemen to conduct
their patrimonial estates, by the aid o
The practical farmers who obey theil
call, II is not sufficiently liberal anc
comprehensive in its scope to develops
superior. practical agriculturists.