Most farmers in the lowlands of Scotland practise the mixed husbandry, but it is reduced to a perfect system nowhere so fully as in the Border counties of England and Scotland. There many farmers accept pupils, and thither many of the latter go to prepare themselves to become farmers. The usual fee for pupils, in that part of the country, is one hundred pounds per annum for bed and board, with the use of a horse to occasional markets and shows. If the pupil desire to have a horse of his own, about thirty pounds a-year more are demanded. On these moderate terms, pupils are generally very comfortably situated.

I am very doubtful of it being good policy to allow the pupil a horse of his own at first. Constant attention to field-labour is not unattended with irksomeness, and, on the other hand, exercise on horseback is a tempting recreation to young minds. Besides, the desire to possess a horse of one's own, is so very natural in a young person living in the country, that, were the pupil's inclinations alone consulted, the horse would soon be in his possession. So long as the choice is given to the indifferent pupil, he will certainly prefer pleasure to duty. The risk is, that the indulgence will be confirmed into a habit that will constantly lead him astray from attending to his business. Were his equestrian excursions confined to following the hounds upon all occasions, forming acquaintances at a distance from home, and loitering about towns on market-days, the roving pupil might see the state of the country, and acquire a knowledge of the world; but the evil of this kind of life is its being introductory to one of dissipation and extravagance. This consideration should have due weight with parents and guardians, in supplying their charge with the luxury of a horse, when placing him under the roof of a farmer. It is enough for a young man to feel the removal of parental restraint, without also having the dangerous incentive of an idle life placed at his disposal. They should consider that upon young men arrived at the years when they become farming pupils, it is not in the power, and is certainly not the inclination, of farmers to impose ungracious restraints. It is the duty of their parents and guardians to impose these; and the most effectual way that I know of, in the circumstances, to avoid temptations, is the denial of a riding-horse. Attention to business in the first year, will most probably induce a liking for it in the second, and after that, the indulgence of a horse may be granted to the pupil with impunity, as the reward of diligence. Until then, the horse occasionally supplied by the farmer, to attend particular markets, or pay friendly visits to neighbours, should suffice; and, as that is the farmer's own property, it will be more in his power to curb in his pupils any propensity to wander abroad too frequently, and thereby pre

serve his own character as a tutor. Such precautions are, of course, only necessary against pupils who shew lukewarmness towards farming. The prudent and diligent pupil who desires to learn his profession, will daily discover new sources of enjoyment at home, far more exhilarating, both to his body and mind, than in jogging along the dirty or dusty highway, until the jaded brute he bestrides is ready to sink under his burden.

Three years of apprenticeship are, in my opinion, requisite to give a pupil an adequate knowledge of farming,—such a knowledge, I mean, as would impress him with the confidence of being himself able to manage a farm; and no young man should undertake such a management until he feels this confidence in himself. Three years may be considered by many as too long a time to spend in learning farming; but after all, it is much less time than that given to many other professions, whose period of apprenticeship extends to five and even seven years; and however highly esteemed those professions may be, none possess a deeper interest, in a national point of view, than that of agriculture. There is a condition attendant on the art of farming, which is common to it and gardening, but inapplicable to most other arts,-that a year must elapse before the same work can again be performed. Whatever may be the ability of the learner to acquire farming, time must thus necessarily elapse before he can have the opportunity of again witnessing a bygone operation. There is no doubt of his natural capacity to acquire, in two years, the art to manage a farm, but the operations necessarily occupying a year in their performance, prevents that acquisition in less time than three. This circumstance of itself will cause him to spend a year in merely observing passing events. This is in his first year. As the operations of farming are all anticipatory, the second year may be fully employed in studying the progress of work in preparation of anticipated results. In the third year, when his mind has been stored with all the modes of doing work, and the purposes for which they are performed, the pupil may attempt to put his knowledge into practice, and his first efforts at management cannot be attempted with so much ease of mind to himself, as, on the farm of his tutor, under his correcting guidance.

This is the usual progress of tuition during the apprenticeship of the pupil; but could he be brought to anticipate results whilst watching the progress of passing events, one year might thus be cut off his apprenticeship. Could a book enable him to acquire the experience of the second year in the course of the first, a year of probationary trial would be saved him, as he would then acquire in two what requires three years to accomplish. This book will accomplish no small achievement,-will confer no small benefit on the agricultural pupil,—if it accomplish this.

39

6. OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTIONS OF

PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE.

"Here let us breathe, and happily institute

A course of learning and ingenious studies."

TAMING OF THE SHREW.

Although I know of no existing plan so suited to the learning of practical farming, as a protracted residence on a farm, yet I feel assured a more efficient one might easily be proposed for the purpose. An evident and serious objection against the present plan is the want of that solicitous superintendence over the progress of the pupils, on the part of the farmer, which is implied in his receiving them under his charge. The pupils are left too much to their own discretion to learn farming effectually. They are not sufficiently warned of the obstacles they have to encounter at the outset of their career. Their minds are not sufficiently guarded against receiving a wrong bias in the methods of performing the operations. The advantages of performing them in one way rather than another, are not sufficiently indicated. The effects which a change of weather has in altering the arrangements of work fixed upon, and of substituting another more suited to the change, is not sufficiently explained. Instead of receiving explanatory information on these and many more particulars, the pupils are mostly left to find them out by their own diligence. If they express a desire to become acquainted with these things, no doubt it will be cheerfully gratified by the farmer; but how can the uninitiated pupil know the precise subject with which to express his desire to become acquainted?

In such a system of tuition, it is obvious that the diligent pupil may be daily perplexed by doubtful occurrences, and the indifferent pupil permit unexplained occurrences to pass before him, without notice. Reiterated occurrences will, in time, force themselves upon the attention of every class of pupils; but unless their attention is purposely drawn to, and explications proffered of, the more hidden difficulties in the art of farming, they will spend much time ere they be capable of discovering important occult matters by their own discernment.

It is in this respect that farmers, who profess to be tutors, shew, as I conceive, remissness in their duty to their pupils; for all of them can impart the information alluded to, and give, besides, a common sense explanation of every occurrence that usually happens on a farm, otherwise they should decline pupils.

It is obvious that pupils should not to be placed in this disadvantageous position. They ought to be taught their profession; because the art of husbandry should be acquired, like every other art, by teaching, and not by intuition. On the other hand, pupils in this, as in every other art, ought to endeavour to acquire the largest portion of the knowledge of external things by their own observation; and they should be made aware by the farmer, that he can at most only assist them in their studies; so that, without much study on their parts, all the attention bestowed on their tuition by the most painstaking farmer will prove of little avail. Practical experience forms the essential portion of knowledge which farmers have to impart, and it is best imparted on the farm; but they have not always the leisure, by reason of their other avocations, to communicate even this on the spot in its due time. More than mere practical knowledge, however, is requisite to satisfy the mind of the diligent pupil. He wishes to be satisfied that he is learning the best method of conducting a farm: He wishes to be informed of the reasons why one mode of management is preferable to every other: He wishes to become familiar with the explanations of all the phenomena that are observable on a farm.

To afford all the requisite information to the pupil in the highest perfection, and to assist the farmer in affording it to him in the easiest manner, I propose the following plan of tuition for adoption, where circumstances will permit it to be established. The more minutely its details are explained, the better will it be understood by those who may wish to form such establishments.

Let a farmer of good natural abilities, of firm character, fair education, and pleasant manners, leasing a farm of not less than five hundred acres, and pursuing the mixed system of husbandry, occupy a house of such a size as would afford accommodation to from ten to twenty pupils. The farm should contain different varieties and conditions of soil,-be well fenced,-well watered,-and not at an inconvenient distance from a town.

With regard to the internal arrangements of the house, double-bedded rooms would form suitable enough sleeping apartments. Besides a dining-room and drawing-room, for daily use, there should be a large room, fitted up with a library, containing books affording sound information on all agricultural subjects, in various languages; forming at one time a lecture-room for the delivery of lectures on the elementary principles of those sciences which have a more immediate reference to agriculture, and at another a reading or writing room or parlour for conversations on farming subjects. There should be fixed, at suitable

places, a barometer, a sympiesometer, thermometers, one of which should mark the lowest degree of temperature in the night, a rain-gauge, an anemometer, and a weathercock. No very useful information, in my opinion, can be derived by the farmer, from a bare register of the heights and depths of the barometer and thermometer. A more useful register for him would be that of the directions of the wind, accompanied with remarks on the state of the weather, the heat of the air as indicated by the feelings, and the character of the clouds as expressed by the most approved nomenclature. The dates of the commencement and termination of every leading operation on the farm should be noted down, and appropriate remarks on the state of the weather during its performance recorded. A small chemical laboratory would be useful in affording the means of analyzing substances whose component parts were not well known. Microscopes would be useful in observing the structure of plants and insects, for the better understanding of their respective functions.

The slaughter-house required for the preparation of the meat used by the family should be fitted up to afford facilities for dissecting those animals which have been affected by peculiar disease. Skeletons and preparations for illustrating comparative anatomy could thus be formed with little trouble. A roomy dairy should be fitted up for performing experiments on the productive properties of milk in all its various states. A portion of the farm-offices should be fitted up with apparatus for making experiments on the nutritive properties of different kinds and quantities of food, and the fattening properties of different kinds of animals. A steelyard, for easily ascertaining the live-weight of animals, is a requisite instrument. The bakery, which supplies the household bread, would be a proper place for trying the relative panary properties of different kinds of flour and meal. Besides these, apparatus for conducting experiments on other subjects as they were suggested, could be obtained when required.

Another person beside the farmer will be required to put all this apparatus into use. He should be a man of science, engaged for the express purpose of shewing the relation betwixt science and agriculture. There would be no difficulty of obtaining a man of science, quite competent to explain natural phenomena on scientific principles. For that purpose, he would require to have a familiar acquaintance with the following sciences:—with meteorology and electricity, in order to explain atmospherical phenomena, upon the mutations of which all the operations of farming are so dependent:—with hydrostatics and hydraulics, to explain the action of streams and of dammed-up water on embankments, to suggest plans for the recovery of land from rivers and the sea,