AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. Some years since the editor carefully prepared a digest of his ideas on education to the industries, in which he held to the Socratian doctrine, that a child should be taught in youth that which he was to practice in age; and, also, to the Divine precept, train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. It was a subject that had long interested thinking men, and at the time spoken of a number of ag ricultural colleges were in operation, under the law of Congress, granting lands for the endow ment, and others were projeeted. The law was broad enough in its conception to include all the industries, and also military tactics. In the for mation of some of these schools of industrial education, it was sought to carry them directly back into the grooves of the old scholastic sys tem. There was a long and bitter strife over the matter, and particularly in Illinois, which State was among the foremost in urging forward the new system of education, and in bringing it prop erly before the people. It is now generally eon ceded that, to the persistent and continued efforts made by the true friends of industrial education, is due the fact that these colleges have been kept proximately near the mark originally intended for them. That is, to give a different education to the youth than that of the ordinary literary colleges—one founded upon the sciences under lying art. Our higher schools of learning had heretofore educated their students in an undevi ating groove—the classics. Science had hut lit tle place in our colleges, except a smattering of some of the principles obtained from text-books. When the student left college, if indeed, it had not so far unfitted him for labor In agriculture and the mechanic arts as to render these disgust ing;, he had to unlearn much that he had acquired, and begin again—a self-education. Here was where, as far back as 1850, such men as Presi dent Wayland, of Brown University; Bishop Potter, of Pennsylvania; Washington Irving, Governor Hunt and Senator Dix, of New York; President Hitchcock, of Amherst Col lege; Profs. Webster, Dewey, Henry and Bache; Prof. Mitchell, of Cincinnati; Prof. Pierce, of Cambridge; and that persistent wheel-horse of agricultural education in the West, Prof. Jona than B. Turner, of Jacksonville, Ill., aided by Bronson Murray, John Gage, Smiley Shepherd, John Davis (now of Kansas) and others, had been preparing the public mind for years to the importance of education, grounded upon science rather than upon letters. At length a conven tion was called in 1851, at Greenville, Ill., at which this question was 'fully discussed. Two of the resolutions there adopted were as follows; Resolved, That, as the representatives of the industrial classes, including all cultivators of the soil, artisans, mechanics and merchants, we desire the same privileges and advantages fur ourselVes, our fellows and our pos. tufty, in each of our several pursuits and callings, as our professional brethren enjoy in theirs; and we admit that it is our own fault that we do not also enjoy them.
Resolved, That, in our opinion, the institutions origin ally and primarily designed to meet the wants of the pro fessional classes, as such can not, in the nature of things, meet ours, any more than the institutions we desire to establish for ourselves could meet theirs.
The next resolution provided that immediate steps be taken for the establishment of a univer sity, expressly to meet the wants of each and all the industrial classes in the State. It was also recommended to found high schools, lyceums, institutes, etc., in each county, on similar princi ples, so soon as it might be practicable to do so. At this convention Prof. Turner, in an ex haustive address, unfolded au elaborate plan for the establishment of a State University, which was subsequently made the ground-work upon which the act of endowment by the United States, and the law regulating the Industrial University of Illinois, were founded. A second, convention was held at Springfield, Ill., June 8, 1852. On this occasion there was a prolonged controversy, forced upon the convention by the representatives of a few of the old classical and theological colleges, who had been admitted by courtesy to participate in the debate. As is usual with many of this class, they consumed the greater part of the time without making much, if any, impression for good on the minds of their auditors. These advocates of the col leges just named desired to be themselves made the custodians of, and instruments through which, the funds of the State should be applied to the education of the industrial classes. This the representatives of these classes then and since, in all their conventions, have unanimously and steadfastly opposed. It was still fought for after the law of Congress endowed a more practical system of colleges; and when the masses thought they had finally beaten the scholiasts, and had secured the fund to the uses of those for whom it was intended, they soon found that their foe had only been beaten off to come up again in another form. A third convention was held at Chicago, November 24, 1852, at which it was resolved to establish an Industrial League of the State of Illinois, which was subsequently chartered by thb legislature. The League was empowered to raise a fund to defray various expenses as, first, to disseminate information, both written and printed; second, to keep up concert of action among the friends of the industrial classes; and third, to employ lecturers to address citizens in all parts of the State. At this convention much important business was transacted; many helpful methods and useful aims were presented, and many interesting ideas elaborated. Prof. J. B. Turner was appointed Principal Director of the League, and John Gage, Bronson Murray, Dr; L. S. Pennington, J. T. Little and William
A. Kennel, Associate Directors. The conven tion was harmonious throughout, the members having wisely decided to exclude those profes sional educators who had no practical knowledge of the wants of the industrial classes. The most noteworthy action of this convention, however, was the passage of a resolution to memorialize Congress for the purpose of obtaining a grant of • public lands to establish and endow industrial colleges in each and every State of the Union. Thus, was finally brought forth a definite plau of action, which immediately took firm hold of many leadingminds throughout the country, i consolidating, in valuable degree, persistent and unselfish efforts which had previously been more or less scattered. A fourth convention was held at Springfield, Ill., on the 4th of July, 1853, at which the duties of the members and terms of office of officers of the League were fixed. Nev ertheless, the important business of this conven tion was the preparation a memorial—this time to the legislature—setting forth in the strongest light, facts, figures, and arguments, to show the great need of a thorough and systematic education of the masses to the industries the would follow in after life. The following ex , tracts from this memorial will show the animu ' and tenor of the work. We need the ram g thorough and practical application of knowledge to our pursuits that the learned professions enjoy in theirs through their universities and their lit erature, schools and libraries, that have grown out of them. For, even though knowledge may exist, it is perfectly powerless until properly ap plied; and we have not the means of applying it. What sort of generals and soldiers would all our national science (and art) make, if we had no military academies to take that knowledge and apply it directly and specifically to military life? Are our classic universities, our law, medicine and divinity schools, adapted to make good gen erals and warriors? Just as well as they are to make farmers and mechanics, and no better. Is the defense, then, of our resources of more actual consequence than their production? Why then, should the State care for the one and neglect the other? It was shown that only one in 260 of the population of the State were, in 1853, engaged in professional life, and not one in 200 in the Union, generally; and that a very great proportion, even of these, never enjoyed the advantages of classical and professional schools. Further, there were, in the United States, 225 principal universities, colleges, seminaries and schools, devoted wholly to the interest of the professional classes, besides many smaller ones, while there was not a single one, with liberal en dowments, designed Tor the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes It said: No West Point, as yet, beams upon the horizon of hope; true, as yet, our boundless resources keep us, like the children of Japhet emigrating from the ark, from the miserable degradation and want of older empires; but the resources themselves lie all undeveloped in some directions, wasted and misapplied others, and rapidly vanishing away as centuries roll onward, under the unskill fulness that directs them. We, the members of the industrial classes, are still compelled to work empirically and blindly, without needful books, schools, or means, by the slow process of that individual experience that lives and dies with the man. Our professional brethren, through their universities, schools, teachers, and libraries, combine and concentrate the practical experience of ages and each man's life. We need the same. We seek no novelties. We desire no new prin ciples. We only wish to apply to the great in terest of the common schools and the industrial classes precisely the same principles of men tal discipline and thorough, scientific, practical instruction, in their pursuits and interests, which arc now applied to the professional and military classes. We would, therefore, respectfully peti tion the honorable Senate and House of Repre sentatives of the State of Illinois, that they pre sent a united memorial to the Congress now as sembled at Washington, to appropriate to each State in 'the Union an amount of public lands not less in value than $500,000, for the liberal endowment of a system of industrial universi ties, one in each State in the Union, to cooperate with eatch other and with the Smithsonian Insti tute at Washington, for the more liberal and practical education of our industrial classes and their teachers, in their various pursuits; for the production of knowledge and literature needful in those pursuits, and developing, to the fullest and most perfect extent, the resources of our soil and our arts, the virtue and intelligence of our people, and the true glory of our common country. The result of these labors was a series of strong resolutions, adopted by the legislature of Illinois, to Congress, of which' the following is important: Resolved, By the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring herein, that our Senators in Congress be in structed, and our Representatives be requested, to use their best exertions to procure the passage of a law of Congress donating to each State in the Union an amount of public lands not less in value than $5d0,000, for the liberal en dowment of a system of industrial universities, one in each State in the Union, to cooperate with each other and with the Smithsonian Institute at Washington, for the more liberal and practical education of our industrial classes and their teachers—a liberal and varied education —adapted to the manifold wants of a practical and enter prising people; and a provision for such educational facil ities being in manifest concurrence with the intimations of the popular wilt, it urgently demands the united efforts of our national strength.