The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1893-11-29
Agricultural Education.

table matter that older heads may
} ponder and be aided thereby.
In recent issue, speaking on the
> very important subject of agricultural
education it says:
The United States is better provided,
y so far as number is concerned, with
= colleges and advanced schools in which
agricultural science in some form is
taught, than any country in the world.
We have at least one school in every
state of the Union which is aided, I'M
der the Immigrant act of congress
passed in 1892, with appropriations
| from great fund created to encourage
schools of science and agriculture. In
| by far greater number o. these
schools of science, a distinct speciality
, is made of instruction in branches con-
nected with agriculture.
r In several of the schools agricultural
education is not a secondary and Incl
dental thing, but the chief purpose and
occupation of the institution. Both the
' theory and practice of agriculture are
t taught in them.
Other acts of congress have given aid
, to agricultural experiment stations es-
tablished by the states, whose main
purpose is to make scientific investiga-
tiOns and experiments connected with
{ farming operations The experiment
stations are often connected with agri-
cultural or scientific schools, and be-
side affording to farmers information
! likely to be directly valuable to them
in their work, they form part, in a
general way at least, of system Of
agricultural education.
A great deal has been done IN the di-
rection of the scientific training of
farmers in the past thirty years; but
the criticisms often expressed by
American farmers, in their gatherings,
indicate that many among them are
not satisfied with the present condi-
ton Of agricultural education.
1t is certainly generally agreed
among farmers that the successful
agriculturist at the present day needs
a scientific and practical education.
The sciences of chemistry, geology and
botany lie at the very foundation of
farming. Of course every good farmer
really knows a great deal of these
sciences, as the result of his own and
his ancestors experience, without
learning them from books or profess
sors. But the present age is the age Of
system and organization, and the
farmer, seeing what has often been ac-
complished by really expert knowledge
of sciences connected with agriculture,
sensibly desires that his sons shall
know them.
How great science the successful
practice of agriculture really is may
be gathered from the branches of
knowledge taught in one great agri-
cultural school. These include, beside
English and mathematics, surface
geology and agricultural chemistry,
illustrating the qualities of soils and
manures; anatomical and technical
botany; physiology and anatomy, and
veterinary medicine and surgery, as
applied to domestic animals; the prin-
ciples of land-surveying, leveling and
practical mechanics; agricultural econ
omy and geography, and theoretical
mechanics and elements of mechanism.
There is, indeed, no profession or
trade which exacts so much of man,
or requires that his knowledge shall
lie along 50 many lines, as that of the
farmer.
That our farmers are well aware of
this is shown by the efforts which they
have already made or sanctioned to-
ward a general system of agricultural