Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1877-02-14
ThE FREEMAN
Forths Freeman.
Letter about the Agricultural College /;
and so forth.
MONTPELIER, VT.
WEDNESDAY. FEBRUARY II. 1877.

cultural college. L know very little about
it except that there is very little oft for
anybody to know about. We have the
thing in name and local habitation, and
even with drop Of fund bestowed by
politicians ever watchful for the Farmers
Good. but the practical substance is yet
among the things of the future, if among
the things of any kind. And there seems
to be nothing like general apprehension,
not only as to the steps necessary to make
the dream Of great institution Of learning
devoted to the education of farmers Il
living reality, but us TO what that reality
should be like when made. And l am
unable to see tangible progress in the mat
ter. The whole idea being new we are
quite without precedent of any kind, and
the very men who must of necessity sup
port and direct the enterprise whenever ii
is supported and directed at all are mostly
doing nothing more than advancing crude
and discordant theories in the premises
and talking wildly about the subject from
beginning to end.
In the first place, we have the common
remark that Farmers are entitled to
farm schools Just us much as lawyers and
doctors are to law and medicine schools"
which is giving the whole matter 4 basis
OF bosh. Agriculture is the first and al
ways the great vital avocation of civilized
man, and is no more to be classed with
the learned professions than the air We
breathe is to be likened to Illuminating
gas. Farming may be and is carried on
by some Of the most ignorant and wretch
ed of created men, while the civilization
which necessitates gas and lawyers and
lifts it from Il rude struggle for existence
to what we see it here to-day, makes it a
common boast that agriculture is the one
pursuit giving scope for the mind in all
possible directions whereas the very es-
sence Of learned profession is the idea of
mind continually directed to particular
field, and to that only. Again, our lcud
takers when they undertake to tell what
special studies farmer should pursue
are won't to insist that he should become
muster Of nearly all the natural and some
Of the other sciences, get u good knowl-
edge Of history, mathematics, political
economy, riparian rights and what not,
often indicating course which it would
take the brightest man in the world
hundred years to accomplish, supposing
him to study constantly and forget nothing
1t is urged, for instance, that u farmer
should be a first rate chemist, so as to ap-
ply fertilizers and place crops upon his
soil to the best possible advantage, and we
naturally imagine the model granger, the
toll of the day being ended, drawing up to
the family kerosene with some little
bottles of mysterious liquids and some
scales and things wherewith he proceeds
to measure and burn and test chipfull of
dirt, finally making one Of those little
tables showing the exact percentages Of
birthstone and brickbat and rathole, or
whatever, the specimen contains in the
light of which table he adapts his fertliz-
ers and crop to the soil in the most exact
manner, and buys bonds. And it all
sounds plausible enough, but in point Of
fact a man in order to do such scientific
word successfully must have, firstly. a
special natural capacity for it, and then
must give i1 his whole time and attention
all the days Of his life Furthermore.
there is something to be said in favor of
actural experiment rs against the highly
scientific measures and there is the ultimate
solemn fact that good farmers past pres
ent and to come, will however educated,
mostly apply to their broad acres whatev-
er fertilizer they happen to have and sow
whatever crop they happen to want but
if any of them really want an analysis Of
their soil they will have to get profes-
sional chemist to make it. Because it is
impossible Tor Il fIrmer 10 become Il staI
performer in chemistry it, Of course, doe:
not follow that little knowledge in thai
line is IA dangerous thing for him, but while
it is lamentlbIy true that with the very
excellent opportunities for studying the
science already afforded him in common
with other men he gives it almost abso.
lutely no attention, it seems to be expected
bv some that the mere establishing Of ar
agricultural college will give him a first
rate knowledge Of chemistry and Of pretty
much everything else. In opposition t.
those who insist upon making the limo
cent farmer into 4 sort Of gloriiied cncy
Clopndia we have men of Il violently
practical disposition who grandly
urge that an agricultural college shouC
be something like Il large farm wher,
students could dig and delve in real dir
under the direction Of first rate farmer
the which would make boys colleg,
days only less like his home life than lik,
that of " hired man.
Now all this talk when reduced to rea
son means that farmers should have th
best possible general education-that tn
more they know the better for them-an,
not that there is any study from which the,
are now excluded, or u magical rule 0
three for all their needs in any specia
course Of study. The ground for erectin,
an agricultural college is, not that a par
ticulr line of study is necessary to enabl
Il man to become farmer, but that thei
importance to society entities farmers t
have exactly such schools as will best d
them for their work. Merchants, me
chanics, or almost any other class of me
stand much more in need of special educa
ton than farmers, but we do not hear q
tlH VeuuIei "Cduulllles VI carpenters
colleges" for obvious reasons. Probabl
no one will deny that n course of stud
might be devised between omniscien
learning upon one hand and naked shove
and hoe upon the other, which would b
better adapted to the farming boy tha
the ordinary classical line OF our presen
academies and colleges,-to say nothin,
of other boys-but there are very few pee