Agricultural Education
| Preis: | 10.95 EUR* (inkl. MWST zzgl. Versand - Preis kann jetzt höher sein!) |
| Versand: | 0.00 EUR Versandkostenfrei innerhalb von Deutschland |
| Partner: | buecher.de |
| Hersteller: | Forgotten Books (Abbot, Theophilus Capen) |
| Stand: | 2015-08-04 03:50:33 |
Produktbeschreibung
Excerpt from Agricultural Education: An Address by President Abbot, of the Michigan State Agricultural College As a matter of fact, farmers as a class have but begun the discussion of the question of Sallust. A few in each community think and read, a few either know the sciences on which agriculture depends or deplore their ignorance, a few are worthy successors of those Roman farmers of the soil, to whom the glebe, glad to be worked by men wearing civic or military crowns, yielded a large return. But the prevalent opinion is that farming requires little of the knowledge to be had in the schools. "´Only a Farmer´ expresses with all sufficient accuracy the relative position of farmers, - not their necessary, but their actual position. The occupation which should be a liberal profession is a most illiberal labor." Especial Need Of Education. There is especial need of educational work for farmers. Little comparatively has been done for them. A young man may choose out of hundreds of schools in which to study law or medicine, or the higher mathematics, or Greek and Latin. In these branches teachers and text books abound. Schools of civil engineering, even of mechanical engineering and mining abound, if we take account of the comparative fewness of the classes for which they exist. In agriculture here and there a school or a professorship struggles against deep-settled prejudices of community, and the inherited axioms of liberal education. Again, farmers are isolated, there is not that sharp action of mind upon mind which disciplines to quick perception and logical thought the artisans of a manufacturing city. Information, improvements, reach them more slowly than other industrial classes. Again, mechanical works, making of railways, mining, manufactures, employ the masses of laborers under a skilled master, whose education in a sense suffices for all, while in agriculture, the advance depends upon the general progress of the masses themselves. Besides, the business of a farmer is highly complicated as compared with that of a carpenter, a miller, a manufacturer. An apprenticeship that would fit a young man to compete with co-laborers in most trades would go but little way in fitting him to be a good farmer. Machinery is made according to fixed principles of action, that are simple and to a great extent known. Mechanics is so exact as to go by the name of applied mathematics. It is not so with the farmers business. Quite a body of empirical rules ∃ but underlying principles that would enable one to vary his practice from a knowledge of the relations of cause and effect are to a great extent wanting. Until these principles are ascertained, agriculture will be among the arts that have no fixed foundations in science. "To know well," says Lord Bacon, "is to understand causes." Liebig says "There is no profession which for its successful practice requires a larger extent of knowledge than agriculture, and none in which the actual ignorance is greater." Of all the pursuits of man, says Carey in his "Social Science," vol. 2, p. 26, "agriculture is the one requiring the highest degree of knowledge." The processes of nature in the production of plants and animals are hidden; plans cannot be made, giving in their execution exact predicted results, as a machinist can do. The routine found good in one place requires modification with the variations of many circumstances in another. It would certainly seem, therefore, that in no business would knowledge and mental discipline be of more service. When a farmer understands the breeding and care of his cattle and the raising of his crops, there is other knowledge needful still. His business has wide relations to the affairs of other men. These he needs to understand. He should be acquainted wit
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