The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-05-28
Number 81.
Education Of the Agricultural
Glass.

Class.
Education is most important to the far
mer as matter of interest. We mean as
a matter of interest and profit in their own
art. We are not unaware of the great inn
portance of practical knowledge and per-
sonal experience in an art SO practical as
agriculture Yet we have no hesitation
in saying, that there is no art which, for
its improvements and success, owes more
to science than this. We admit that some
of our most successful farmers and mer-
chants have been men of very imperfect
advantages and limited information. But
although they nave been men with few of
the public and ordinary advantages of ed
ucation, yet such men have never, unless
in some very extraordinary and acciden-
tai case, been other men than wnat are
called self thought men; and men or great
natural shrewdness and intelligence, who
have anxiously availed themselves of all
the advantage within their reach and OBJ
taiaed all the information in respect to
their particular profession and art, which
it was in their power to obtain. And have
they not invariably themselves felt aud la
mented the want of education? And
fcient, their Improvement greater, their
efforts made with superior success, if, to
the native energy and perseverance and
COOP judgment and skill, for which they
have been remarkable, had been added the
knowledge and information which supe-
rior earlier advantages of education would
! have afforded them!
But produce as many of these cases of
extraordinary success on the part ofuned-
ucated men as can be found, and on the
other hand of the i'll success of the theoreti-
cal man, literally, book farmer, who, with
out any previous knowledge, has underta-
ken to manage and cultivate farm, solely
by information gathered from treaties on
agriculture; and the advantages will be on
the side of the book farmer. Yet, if these
cases were a thousand times numerous
as they are, would this overthrow the es-
tablished principles of the universal value
of knowledge? And If, in every other art,
even the most humble, knowledge is SO
important, as the source of power, and an
| essential means of success, can we in the
great art of agriculture, involving so many
relations to be guarded, SO manv opera
tions to be performed, so many materials
to be operated upon, and so many instru-
ments with which to operate, be guilty ot
the fragrant absurdity of supPosing that
here, since is of no avail?
Much rather is it as obvious to any rea-
sonable mind, as the light of the sun to
any clear eye, that knowledge must be
valuable and important everywhere, just
in proportion to the greatness of the art to
which it is to be applied, and the many
subjects of action or use which that art in
wolves; and we may perhaps excite gen.
eral surprise, when we state that no art
bears so close relation to so many
| branches of science as agriculture. Are
we wrong then in saying that the agricul-
tural class is the most important part of
our population? And can we, in respect
to this class, possibly overrate the impor-
tance of education? Should not our gov
ernment do more for the agriculturist than
they are doing? Agriculture is the most
| fruitful source of the riches of a country,
and of the welfare of its inhabitants, and
it is only as the state of agriculture is more
or less fourishing, that we can judge un-
erringly of the happiness of a natioh, or
of the wisdom of its government. The
prosperity which country derives from
the industry and skill of its artizans, may
be but passing CLEAN, that alone is du-
rable, which has its rise in good cultiva-
ton of the soil. These facts ought to be
constantly present to the minds OF the
people, and to influence all public meas
ures, and every exertion should be made,
to give the farmer such knowledge of his
profession, as will enable him to produce
three fold what he now does.-Diyigo Rg-
raj