But, it may be asked, will you call that a school which is merely an
assembly of adults without a teacher? I answer that technically it is
not a school, but that in reality such an association is a school in the
best use of the word. A school is, first, for the development of powers
and qualities whose germs already exist; then for the acquisition of
knowledge previously possessed by others; then for the prosecution of
original inquiries and investigations. The associations of which I speak
would possess all these powers, and contemplate all these results; but
that their powers might be more efficient, and for the advancement of
agriculture generally, it seems to me fit and proper for the state to
appoint scientific and practical men as agents of the Board of
Agriculture, and lecturers upon agricultural science and labor. If an
agricultural college were founded, a farm would be required, and at
least six professors would be necessary. Instead of a single farm, with
a hundred young men upon it, accept gratuitously, as you would no doubt
have opportunity, the use of many farms for experiments and repeated
trials of crops, and, at the same time, educate, not a hundred only, but
many thousand young men, nearly as well in theory and science, and much
better in practical labor, than they could be educated in a college. Six
professors, as agents, could accomplish a large amount of necessary
work; possibly, for the present, all that would be desired.
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