The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1880-11-27
.v-,eu,,ure in Common schools

The question of the introduction OF the
study of Agriculture into our public
schools is receiving attention from vari-
Gus and sometimes unexpected quarters.
The latest news upon the subject is, that
Ireland is taking steps toward requiring
the teaching of the rudiments OF agricul-
tural science in the public schools OF that
country; while Tennessee has been fore
most among our own States IN prepa ing
for he same step. 1t is certainly only
question of time when this study will be
generally recognized as an indispensable
Dorticn OF the education of the child who
IS expected to earn his bread directly from
the soil.
1t is evident, however, that before Ag
riculture can be Taught in our schools the
teachers themselye, must be taught, and
this is one of the missions of the Agricul-
| tural Colleges of our country. 1t is man
| ifestly impossible for every farmers son
and daughter to receive instruction direct
lv from the Agricultural College of his
| State; if reached at all they must be
reached through the common schools.
But there is too wide a gap between the
school and the College, for the latter can
not vet undertake to qualify all the teach
ers of the State for work in this line.
| 1t has recently been suggested by Farm
and Fireside'' that our Normal Institutes
MIGHT be made in some degree the con
| Meeting link between the common school
and Agricultural College, if the teachers
! sent out from these Institutes were re
ouired to be capable of giving instruction
in the branches of science most nearly re-
lated to Agriculture, as geology, chemls-
| try, animal and vegetable physiology and
| entomology. Were a connection estab-
lished between these Institutes and the
| Agricultural Institutes which are being
held each January by the Ohio State Uni
versity, and with the extension of these
institutes proposed by the State Board OF
| Agriculture, it seems to me that tie prin
cipIes underlying the relations OF these
| sciences to that of Agriculture might be
vely widely disseminated in very short
| time The lecture courses of the Univers-
itv have already been the means of eX-
tending the knowledge of their principles
through the machinery of the Grange, anc
proof has thus BEEN given of the posi-
bility of this portion of the plan above sug
gestei.
As in the use of the more extended
teaching of the application of science tc
Agriculture in the Agricultural Colleges
SO in that of the introduction of this new
branch of elementary instruction into the
common schools there must be many
years of patent experimenting before the
methods will be discovered The grea
want of the first Agricultural College
were qualified Instructors. That wan
is being gradually satisfied by the College
themselves, but it will likewise be tn
greatest drawback o the successful intro
duction of the elements of Agriculture
into the common schools. This want
however, is one of the demands of GU
times which must be satisfied. We have
come to the time when our whole educa
tional system must be reorganized. Lif
is too short and knowledge too vast to b
, contained in a single lifetime, while tn
facts which scientists have CLEANED tror
Natures fields within the past are foun
to be interviewer with every form of hu
man industry that it has become irlpera
tive that he who would succeed in an
avocation should erter upon it with
special knowledge of its relations to thos
natural laws which are found to be
universal application, existing through ii
finity, perfect, immutable, and the tittin
expression of Deity.-GraRge Bulletin.