Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-01-01
AGRICULTURAL. EDUCATION
The Agricultural College Of the
State University.
Its Relation to the Agriculturists of the
state-A Sketch Of its Special Agrt-
cultural Instruction

Ourst.l
In beginning this subject We can do no
better than to insert few paragraphs fIom
the general statement of the College of
Agriculture in the Universisy register for
the year 1879 so; TIE instruction is
given BIZ experimental anu Illustrated lect-
ures, ROTATIONS, essays and class discus
sions, and in the practical application of
principles upon the University grounds.
In addition, orchards, vineyards, farms
dairies and other places Of agricultural IN
terest and importance will be visited by the
ciasa, as far as practicable, under the guild.
aDce and instruction of the Agricultural
Professor. The course of instruction dur
ing the first two, of the four years consti-
tuting the undergraduate course, is The
same as for other scientific colleges, except
in so far as the work in the chemical labor
atory is more especially directed to subjects
cognate to agriculture During the two
succeeding, or junior and senior years, the
studies relating directly to the science and
practice of agriculture are given chief
prominence. The frequency with which
the aim of such studies, and
THE ATTAINABLE OBJECTS
OF agricultural colleges generally are mis-.
understood, renders an explanation desir-
able. Those who consider agriculture as
consisting merely in the manual work Of
blowing, planting, cultivating, harvesting,
and the care of stock, justly ridicule the
idea of it's being taught in a college. Ap-
premiership on well-conducted farm, OF
In labor schools, is the proper means for
attaining this end, since it does not neces.
sarily imply material intellectual progress,
or education properly so called, 1t is not
contended that such schools, or especially
such apprenticeshIpsi are net intrinsically
useful and necessary. But the kind oi
training SO attained is clearly not that in,
tended by the Act of Congress for the
liberal and practical education of the in
dustrial classes" on which the agricultural
and mechanical colleges of the severa
States are based and experience in the
East has abundantiy shown that 1t is moi
the kind OF education really desired by tbs
industrial classes for their sons, since the
want of patronage has in every case com
PEELED change towards the system which
makes the manual exercise merely means
of fully Illustrating the principles of nstu
raj agriculture. Il is not that they may
learn to plow or hoe little better, but tC
learn why TO plow or hee az all. and wher
aud where to do it to the best advantage
that parents are wiling to dispense witt
their sons services on the home farm.
WITHOUT AN EDUCATED JUDGMENT,
Directing the application Of general princi
pies under circumstances infinitely varied
a little knowledge, and great deal O
local routine habit acquired on mode
form, are but too apt to obscure common
sense, and to render the possessor emf
nently impractical everywhere else. Il
may be thought that certain amount O.
obligatory manual labor, over and above
that necessary for practice and illustra
tion, might profitably be enforced to main
tain the habit. But the period of foul
years now allotted to the educationa
course is so short, in regard to the mul
tiplicity of subjects in which an educated
agriculturist should have respectable
knowledge, that the time for merely me-
chanical exercises cannot reasonably BIZ
spared"
The above extract presents a sucoinct
yet comprehensive statement of thu
status of the Agricultural College of the
University of California. 1t is not 8
- model school, nor a "place for ap
premiership in the manual OF the farm :
sgt it is pre- eminently college, and pre-
,'senting information on a plane as high as
that of any similar institution in the
United States. 1t gives instruction in the
science of agriculture, and is concerned
with the art only in 30 far as it may helI
to illustrate the theory. 1t deals with
general facts, as demonstrated by the re-
searches of science and education but the
application of these facts must be left to
the genius, practicability and progressive.
ness of the student. Because one has
taken his degree at an agricultural college,
it must not be inferred that success has
been assured him in agricultural pursuits,
SUCCESS
Is not dependent simply on the one factor
education. In fact, probably the most try.
ing time of all for the University gradu-
ate, is the few months succeeding the &C.
QUESTION of his degrees, and when he is
called upon to put to some practical appli-
cation the knowledge he has, or should
have derived from his University course.
With some, these first few months are un.
eventful, for their provident parents have
most probably mapped cut their future
career. But to the many. the two words,
"What next - are brought most forcibly
to their comprehension by the fact that
they are now entirely dependent upon their
own resources, and that their future
whether success, or falling back into the
ranks of obscurity, from which their OPP
portunities should have permanently lifted
them-must be wrought out by their own
efforts, seconded by the application OF so
much scientific knowledge as they may have
utilized during their undergraduate course.
Education is the cultivation Of the in
tellect, and the cultivation of ones intellect
gives him a more comprehensive reasoning
power. Herbert Spencer says: Intellect
is not power, but an instrument not a
thing which itself moves and works, but a
thing which is moved and worked by
forces behind it :" and, Reason is an
SJG-tuc eye kbAVeSu HhiSA buO uSohOS oOo
their way to qualification. Aud educating
it only makes it better eye-gives it a
vision more accurate and comprehensive
does not at all alter the desires subserved
by it. However farseeing you may make
IL. the passions will still determine the di-
rections in which it will be turned" Too
MANY readers are not aware Of the import
OF the few lines just quoted. They fancy
that the student at the University is secur-
ing gradually, by their attendance, an ab-
stract power which is supposed to be of it
self infallible; an indefinable something,
the principle of whica is above their com
prehension, and hence, above their credul-
ity; but which often secures to the lucky
possessor the ability to reap the fullest re-
turns without the customary correlasive
labor. They imagine that the graduate
goes forth into the world endowed with a
.eanital-education- is of itself a
basis of success. Strictly speaking,
FDUCATIoN Is CAPITAL