XIII.-AGRICULTURE.

REPORT ON THE INTRODUCTION OF AGRICULTURE AS A BRANCH OF COMMON SCHOOL EDUCATION.

BY ELIJAH SLACK, A. M., M. D.

Ought

YOUR Committee, to whom was referred the question, Agriculture to be a branch of Common School education, and how shall it be introduced?"

REPORT:

That Agriculture, as an art, sustains to other departments of business, the first rank in the estimation of society, is beyond a question. That the science of agriculture, as well as the art, ought to be familiar to every cultivator of the soil, is equally evident; and until this science be generally prosecuted, the business of the cultivator must continue to be, in a degree, imperfect. By the science of agriculture, your committee mean, the collection and proper arrangement of the principles on which the art of agriculture depends for its present success. If these principles were carefully investigated, and their bearings well understood by the youth in our schools, the noble art of agriculture would be very soon advanced beyond our most sanguine expectations. The soil duly invigorated by composts and manures, and turned up according to the circumstances of the intended, crop, would yield its products to an almost unlimited extent. The question which has long and most anxiously agitated politicians, "that the soil could not yield sufficient for the continually increasing population of a country," would be forever put to rest. Let the population of a country arrive at any proposed maximum, still the enlightened cultivator, deeply versed in principles, would be enabled to produce so as to meet all exigencies; and to furnish a regular supply, to the steadily increasing demands of society.

That such a result would be realized, a few examples of enlightened cultivation conclusively show.

Of Cape of Good Hope wheat, fifty grains produced, in a single year, four thousand and seventy-four, or eighty to one.

Heshbon wheat, lately brought from Arabia, has ears twice as large as the common kind, and eighty-four grains have been found in an

ear.

The Siberia wheat, called "La sarasin de Tartarie," in good land, yields two thousand grains for one, in a single year.

One single grain of Talavera wheat, sown in a garden at Weston, near Bath, England, September, 1819, in the August of 1820 produced seventy-three stalks, and yielded seven thousand four hundred and forty-five grains.

As reported in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol. lviii., 1768, Mr. Miller in one year obtained from a single grain of wheat, by division of shoots or plants, five hundred distinct plants, which yielded twenty-one thousand one hundred and nine ears, and five hundred and seventy-six thousand eight hundred and forty grains, weighing forty-seven pounds.

A pea of the dwarf kind, sown near Stockton, England, produced eighty-eight pods, containing three hundred and eighty-six distinct peas, in a single crop.

Another pea, sown at Cawwood, England, in one season and at one crop, yielded one hundred and five pods, from which were taken five hundred and five peas.

In the United States the increase of Indian corn, or maize, in the year, is from three to eight hundred, and sometimes two thousand grains for a single grain planted.

It has been found, says Sir John Sinclair, that one acre of land, with common cultivation, will yield of potatoes, in nutritive food, or good flour, twenty-seven hundred pounds; while wheat, with a like cultivation, on the same quantity of ground, yields only thirteen hundred pounds of flour. Thus it is evident, that the substitution of the potato for wheat, more than doubles the amount of nutritious food. Again, our fruits as well as grains, are capable of a like increase, by careful cultivation.

This will be seen by reference to the fact, well known to botanists, that our domestic plums are the descendants of the European sloe; peaches and nectarines of the almond-tree; delicious apples, of which we have nearly four hundred species, are derived from the austere crab, or wild apple, which swine will scarcely taste; and our luscious pear is traced to a fruit as unpromising as the crab or wildling above. What has given rise to this striking increase and excellence? Your committee answer, Enlightened and careful cultivation. The examples above are chiefly from Dr. Turner, who adds, in his excellent Sacred History, "in nature, the law of population has never exceeded

that of the productive power of vegetable life, and never will." We remark further, that in China, where the population is several times more dense than in any other country, a plot of ground a few feet square, supports a family comfortably. What has been advanced, will show, that no department of business whatever, is capable of more unlimited improvement than agriculture, provided its principles be carefully arranged, and judiciously applied in practice.

Your committee think that the question, whether agriculture ought to be made a branch of common school education, is already answered in the affirmative. The youth educated in the common schools are the bone and sinew of the Republic. They are to be the farmers and mechanics, the professional men and the legislators of our country. Every part of education on principles so intimately connected with important practice, ought to be attended to and must be attended to. The great majority of common school pupils, in the country and country villages, are the sons of farmers; and is it to be supposed that an education having a direct bearing on their future business is to be wholly neglected? Is a mere smattering of reading, writing and arithmetic to be furnished as a substitute? Your committee do not feel disposed to undervalue the rudiments of an English education, but, with these, it is contended, that every branch of science, having a direct bearing on the noble art of agriculture ought, in our common schools, in some way, to be provided for and made the subject of special attention. It is essential that the mass or whole population of our agricultural youth, be acquainted with those principles of chemistry, which unfold the particulars of fermentation and the formation of manures, with their application to the comminution and turning up of soils, the management of plants during vegetative life, and the gathering in of the crop. It is important that the same youth understand the first principles of Botany, so as to comprehend the germination of the seed, the food of plants, their methods of propagation and careful nurture to bring them successfully to maturity; and the most approved methods of practical agriculture; or the actual cultivation of the soil so as to ensure a steady crop.

That agriculture ought to be made a regular branch of common school education, is a position too manifest to be farther discussed. But "how it shall be introduced," the last part of the question assigned to your committee, cannot be so easily answered.-Our common schools are, at present, in their infancy; what they may be, can not be fully anticipated. The prosperity of our country and the enlightened views of statesmen can make them an eternal blessing, or by improper organization and pernicious instructions, they may become the very bane of the Republic. It is our part to aid in giving them that direction, which may promote liberty, virtue and universal utility. While all concur in the propriety

of introducing to the attention, especially, of our agricultural youth, the subject of agriculture, many different opinions may be, or are, entertained in regard to the manner of its introduction, so as to promote the great object,--enlightened cultivation. It is also evident, that in all the common schools, or every common school spread throughout an extended country, the subject of agriculture can not be introduced, by a collection of learned professors and a practical farmer operating together on a public or common school farm. This would be too expensive, and as the children at the common schools are generally young, fit subjects or pupils for practical farming could not be found embodied. Under these circumstances your committee would suggest, that in each state something like a polytechnic school be organized under the immediate supervision of the Legislature, and funds be appropriated accordingly, that every department of useful business may, in this enlightened age, meet with equal encouragement.-That in this school the most ample means be provided for the important business of agriculture, that professors in every department of science bearing on agriculture, deliver their regular course of lectures, and that all the principles of farming be applied to practice, by a well qualified farmer on a suitable farm, and with every agricultural pupil taking part in the labor. A plan of this kind would disseminate the most enlightened views and the most enlarged practice among the great body of the people. But you may say, this will be a limited operation and not calculated to meet the exigency. The youth attending on such a school will probably be the sons of the rich who would not be very likely to apply their agricultural principles to practice, such I believe will be the natural conclusion, unless the whole establishment be supported at public expense, (the pupils as well as the professors,) the agricultural youth would never receive the education desired. The institution as to money matters, must be conducted something like our military school, to make it useful, and every honest and active youth of the land made eligible to a place. This however would be a partial plan still, unless legislative aid be extended to minor institutions; to agricultural academies in the several populous subdivisions of a state, organized, as far as practicable, on the principles of the model school. All these arrangements, it would seem, will not meet the case in point. This will not be introducing agriculture into the common schools as a branch of common school education. The position is admitted, and in the opinion of your committee it can be introduced in no other way, than by simple and judicious treatises, embodying the most approved practice of agriculture in our polytechnic or academic agricultural schools. These treatises, prepared in a concise and perspicuous manner for the express purpose, may be placed in the hands of every agricultural youth, and the contents made the subject of special study. If farther information be required by any, a place may be