THE GRIEVANCE OF THE FARMER.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
read with interest the letter of "Academicus," advising farmers to demand cheap technical education for their sons, to seek State aid for cheap technical schools with farms attached, and, above all, to make themselves troublesome to parties and statesmen. As a party man, I have no objection to the advice of " Academicus." But as an old pupil of Sir Benjamin Brodie, the Oxford Professor, as one who remembers with gratitude the help given to agriculture by Daubeny, Henslow, and Buckland, I ask,—Who is there at the Universities to whom one can now look to train teachers, educated men, grounded in mechanics, chemistry, and physiology, with sufficient knowledge of the diffi- cult problems of agriculture to teach the farmer his business ? Moreover, I may ask, has "Academicus" considered how diffi- cult it is to combine a model farm with a good school ? It has often been tried. If the education is the main object, farewell to the business character of the farm. If the farm is a real business, it is difficult to conduct the education, to say nothing of the capital required.
I believe we had better push on the development of county schools for general education, including the elements of science, for the mental training of the farmer in habits of intelligent .observation, and we had better trust to apprenticeship on the farm for learning the business.
We also need more experimental stations, such as that on the Duke of Bedford's farm at Woburn, under the direction of Professor Voelcker. In connection:with such stations, we might gradually train teachers knowing enough of practice as well as science to interest young farmers already in business by occa- sional lectures, teaching them the why and wherefore of their daily practice.—I am, Sir, &c., RUSTICUS.
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