The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1878-03-08
The Agricultural College Question.

The subject of agricultural education
and development, is perhaps the most
important one now before the people of
Vermont, and why should not our pub
lie facilities for the promotion of these,
be prominent subject for discussion
by the people and press of the state
We are from necessity an agricultural
people, and our pecuniary success, and
through this channel, our social prog
ress, is dependent upon the development
of our agricultural resources. Improve
our agriculture, and every pecuniary
and social interest is favorably effected
by it. Our schools, academies, and col
leges, our churches and benevolent in
stitutions, every worthy private and
public enterprise, feel the impulse
which improved agricultural prosperity
invariably imparts, while the reverse is
true of agricultural depression. IL is
not question which affects only indi-
viduals or classes, but one in which cv-
cry citizen of the state is interested.
Agricultural success is dependent upon
the requirement of agricultural knowl-
edge and skill by the class who engage
in that calling, justas surely as the ac-
quircment of medical knowledge and
|
who engage in the practice of medicine.
1t is just as absurd to ignore the claims
of special education in the one case as
in the other.
Yet with these self-evident truths be-
fore us, and while educational facilities
in every other branch have been pro-
vided for, we of Vermont have not the
facilities for the education of solitary
farmers son in q course of practical
and scientific agriculture. The failure
to promote and foster all worthy cduca-
tional interests, is q disgrace to all ell
lightened state, and the suppression of
popular investigation with regard to
any educational subject, is reproach to
any people, and unworthy of the spirit
of the age in which we live. These re-
marks are suggested by, and are an in
territorial criticism upon the past and
present course of some of the leading
journals of our state in this matter.
If the farmers of Vermont believe
that our agricultural fund is being di-
verted from its legitimate object. it is
not only their right, but their duty, to
enter an honest protest, and those Jour
nails which claim to represent the public
sentiment and to be identified with the
public interests, have no moral right to
exclude such protests from their col
umns, when couched in proper terms,
because individual or party schemes
are TO be affected by the establishment
of truth, and the justice of the claims of
the protcstants. If the managers of our
agricultural fund, cannot successfully
defend themselves against charges
brought against them by farmers of the
state, especially when every considcra-
ton of education, ability, etc., favor
them in the intellectual contest, let
them be driven to the wall, and be COM
pclled to exhibit, ifnot to acknowledge.
the weakness of their cause.
The trouble in the case is the evident
fact. that the fund has been intention
ally diverted from its legitimate object:
the guilty parties of course dislike to
have the subject agitatcd. They are in
fluential, and hence the silence of most
of our state papers upon the subject,
and hence also one of the evils resulting
from the present use of the fund in ques-
ton. Any influence which prevents the
free discussion of important public in
tcrests is curse, by discouraging pub
lie improvement, if in no other manner.
The evil in the case before us is not
so much from the diversion of the fund,
as from the building up of an influence
directly opposed to agricultural prog
rcss, power which looks with Jealous
eye upon the work of our agricultural
board and upon every other movement
OF the farmers looking to self-improve-
ment, and concentrated effort. 4 pow-
cr which has already expended nearly
or quite Sl20,0 of the peoples money,
in the promotion of selfish schemes, and
the perpetuation of useless, and other
wise hopeless rivaIrics, while it should
legitimatcly have been expended in the
education of the sons of the farmers
and mechanics of the state, to prepare
them not only for private success in
their various callings, but also to ell
gage in the great work ofdeveloping the
agricultural and mechanical resources
of the state.
impending bankruptcy is only avcrtcd
by the annual receipt of the eight or
nine thousand dollars accruing from
the interest of those funds, and they
very naturally hold them with nerv-
GUS grasp and watch with an anxious
eye the progress of intelligence among
their self-cOnstituted enemies. The
probabilities of their being called to
give an account of their Stewardship
increase or diminish, with the increase
or decrease of the intelligent apprccia-
ton of the situation by the masses, and
with the degree of Importance they at
tach to agricultural knowledge. The
Ignorant ward may be robbed by his
guardian, while the more intelligent
one will be protected bv his own Intel
lInAlnn In. l..
such circumstances, shrink from pub
lie discussion of a subject of such vital
importance to themselves? Justice and
truth seek the light, injustice and
wrong never.
We may safely apply this rule in our
investigation of all matters of public in
terest. If any party shriaks from the
public scrutiny of its acts, we may safe
ly conclude that il is attempting to con-
ceal hidden wrong. In the case before
us, the ominous silence of that portion
of the press of the state which is con-
trolled by burlington influence, and the
repeated exhibition of petulance and ILL
temper exhibited by the friends of the
so-called agricultural college when pub
lie investigations have been demanded,
point to but one conclusion. This def
ant, unreasoning attitude on the part of
those in charge of a public trust, is of
itself sufficient reason why thorough,
searching Investigation should be in
sisted upon. The interests of the state
and of all honest parties demand it.
Not, indeed, before packed and hood
winked legislative committee, but by
the people, and before the tribunal Of
public opinion. If the managers of our
agricultural fund have, as they claim,
been slandcred and misrepresented by
demagogues, rival institutions, or the
selfish and designing of any class or
party, they can surely, with the ability
at their command, expose their traduc-
ers and vindicate themselves. Will they
do it? FARMER.
Whiting, Feb. 20, 1878.
Not long since party of visitors