Part 2

Various gymnastic games are also practised occasionally; but mental exercises find their place better after hard labour: They do indeed in the fields full as well as on the benches of the school. For instance, when the boys are employed in digging trenches to irrigate a meadow, and while directing the water along artificial ridges, and round hills, so as to regulate the fall and distribute the moisture equally, they put each other in mind of what they have heard about the laws of hydraulics. When they clear a field of the stones turned up by the plough, and are directed to separate those which are calcareous, in order to be burned into lime, they know and practise the different tests by which their nature is ascertained, and can point out in the horizon, the particular mountains which have furnished these various fragments.

In order to encourage the attachment to property acquired by our own industry, the pupils are allowed certain emoluments, such as the proceeds of the seeds they collect, some part of their gleanings, and what they raise in a small garden of their own; all which accumulates, and forms a fund for the time of their going away. No ambitious views are fostered by this mode of training the poorest class, beyond that of being good husbandmen. The pupils of the _school of industry_ are not raised above their station; but their station, dignified and improved, is raised to them. It has been remarked before, that men born in the poorest class of society, constituted as it is at present, especially those who subsist in part on public charity, find it almost as difficult to get out of their dependant situation as a Hindoo to leave his cast,--kept down as they are by a sort of inbred ignorance and improvidence, and, above all, by their multitude; which is one of the worst consequences of that improvidence. The higher and middling ranks scarcely keep up their numbers any where; while multiplication goes on, unrestrained by any consideration of prudence, precisely among those who are least able to support a family. The poor may, in the bitterness of want, exclaim against taxes and ill government, and certainly not always without reason;--but the worst government is their own of themselves.

_Agricultural labour_ is not the only occupation which can be made the base of such an education. _Manufactures_, with all their disadvantages, might answer the purpose, provided the children were not collected together in vast numbers in the same rooms--provided they were under the care of intelligent and kind masters and overseers, and were allowed gardens of their own, and a certain number of hours each day to work in them, or take exercise in the open air--all which must abridge necessarily the time allotted to productive labour, or to learning. One of the great advantages of husbandry is, that it affords sufficient exercise, and leaves more time for mental improvement. Such of Vehrli's pupils as have a turn for any of the trades in demand at Hofwyl--wheelwright, carpenter, smith, &c. tailor or shoemaker--are allowed to apply to them. These boys will leave the Institution at the age of one-and-twenty, understanding agriculture better than any peasants ever did before, besides being practically acquainted with a trade, and with a share of learning quite unprecedented among the same class of people; and yet as hard-working and abstemious as any of them, and with the best moral habits and principles. It seems impossible to desire or imagine a better condition of the peasantry.

Public education, Mr. de Fellenberg observes, is too generally a uniform process, imposed indiscriminately, and by force, upon every variety of disposition, talents, and character. His object, on the other hand, is to suit the education to the pupil, and not the pupil to the education.--A good preceptor should be an experienced friend, who guides,--not a master who commands, and, above all, not an irascible master. Punishments and rewards he considers as equally objectionable: for fear makes slaves, and the love of distinction unfolds, in the end, most of the bad passions. _Do as you would be done by_ is, he maintains, the only safe rule of conduct to inculcate; a lively feeling of right and wrong, goodwill and kindness to all men, the only sentiments fit to be encouraged. Emulation, perhaps, is too powerful and universal a stimulant to be altogether excluded; but it needs more frequently to be repressed than excited. Such a vigilant and cautious system of training would be best carried on certainly under the parental roof, in a well regulated and united family; and therefore he wishes a school to resemble as nearly as possible such a family, and to be as unlike as possible to a mere manufactory of learning.

The whole course of studies may be considered as divided into three periods, of three years each. In the first, they study Greek and the Grecian History, the knowledge of animals, plants, and minerals. In the second, Latin, Roman History, and the Geography of the Roman world. And in the third, Modern Languages and Literature, Modern History to the last century, and Geography--the Physical Sciences, and Chymistry. During the whole nine years, they apply to Mathematics, Drawing, Music, and Gymnastic Exercises.

The geometrical representation of near objects--the house, the garden, the course of the river, the surrounding country, the mountains beyond it, taken by approximation in the shape of a map--is the natural introduction to Geography. When the pupils feel a curiosity to know more of the world than they can see, maps are then laid before them, and the globe and its uses are explained. They are made to delineate correctly, from memory, the shape of continents and seas; and to place and name the principal chains of mountains, the course of rivers, the boundaries of states, their provinces and capitals;--and this leads to an inquiry into the particular history of each, and their natural productions.

Drawing is early cultivated, from natural objects first, then by copying, and finally by composing characteristic heads, or rather endeavouring to imitate the effect of passions on the human countenance. The execution is generally correct, but hard and dry--in the style of Perugino certainly, rather than of Rembrandt. Music likewise is much practised; not however with a view to execution, but for the sake of the Poetry of music, and its Piety--as an elevated language, in which certain ideas and feelings are expressed, which no other human means can reach or convey. The gymnastic exercises have for their object, health, and the dexterous use of the bodily faculties; but they never are exhibited in public, and made an occasion of show and display.

It is the endeavour of the master to encourage his pupils to express freely, both in writing and conversation, the opinions and feelings which have been suggested by their reading; and thus to enable them to rectify their mistakes, either as to facts or inferences; never dictating to them what they should think, and yet restraining and directing the flights of a young imagination. The pupils do not read the history of the last century before their twentieth year, when judgment is sufficiently matured; and even then, all reference to the politics of the day is avoided, that they may enter the world with minds wholly free from party spirit, and able to form unprejudiced opinions. Common newspapers and political pamphlets are never seen at Hofwyl.

The study of Mathematics continues during the whole period of education, to an extent determined entirely by the individual capacity and disposition of each pupil, who is not hurried on or retarded for the sake of keeping pace with others. Every problem is analyzed and explained thoroughly before passing to another. The interest and attention of those of ordinary abilities, is kept up by practical applications of the science; and none but those properly qualified apply to the pure mathematics: In doing so, they are carefully guarded against the pride of successful calculation, which is apt to overlook Divine power in the consideration of its own.

At the same time that Mr. de Fellenberg dwells with delight and confidence on the natural proofs of the existence of the Supreme Being, he admits fully, and establishes the necessity of a Revelation to supply the insufficiency of human reason. Socrates himself, he observes, did not know how to establish the dogma of the unity of God. His pupils, brought up in purity and simplicity of heart, under the influence of reason and kindness, are in a great degree Christians before they are taught Christianity,--and best prepared, therefore, to understand and receive the Divine doctrine; but all dogmatic points are reserved for the ministers of their respective communions, who are to instruct them; and controversial disputes are unknown and interdicted.

It has been said also that Mr. de Fellenberg's husbandry is ruinous. This would only add to the wonder of his being able to do what he does by his own slender means; but, in point of fact, his farm affords a very considerable profit. We have, upon this point, the evidence of a gentleman well versed in those matters, Mr. Crud of Genthod, one of the commissioners appointed by the Swiss Diet to inquire into the agricultural establishment at Hofwyl, the result of whose statements is, that the farm (214-1/2 poses, equal to about 172 English acres) has produced _net_ in 4 years from 1810 to 1814, 56,705_l._ Swiss money, and for one year 14,176_l._ which, deducting interest at 6 per cent. on 14,382_l._ the average value of stock on the farm, or 843_l._, leaves a clear profit of 13,313_l._, equal to 3_l._ 17s. 6d. Sterling a pose (nearly equal to 4/5ths of an English acre;)[1] and, valuing the farm at the high price of 750_l._ a pose, (47_l._ Sterling,) gives something more than 8-1/4 per cent. interest, net of all charges. The farm is undoubtedly benefited by the Institution, which affords a ready market for its produce, and perhaps by the low price at which the labour of Vehrli's boys is charged: But the farm, on the other hand, affords regular employment to the boys; and also enables Mr. de Fellenberg to receive his richer pupils at a lower price than he could otherwise do. Hofwyl, in short, is a great whole; where 120 or 130 pupils, more than 50 masters and professors, as many servants, and a number of day-labourers, six or eight families of artificers and tradesmen, altogether about 300 persons, find a plentiful, and in many respects a luxurious subsistence, exclusive of education, out of the produce of 170 acres, and a money income of six or seven thousand pounds, reduced more than half by salaries, affords a very considerable surplus to lay out in additional buildings.

[1] The pose is 40,000 square feet of Berne, equal to 32,500 of Paris, and about 35,000 English feet, that is, equal to about 4/5ths of an English acre.

Not satisfied with what we had ourselves learned and thought on this subject, we have been anxious to learn what was thought of it in the neighbourhood, and by persons not particularly friendly to the Institution. We have scarcely heard an objection against the _School of Industry_. The opinion is _universally_ favourable to it; and though there is more difference of sentiment as to the _higher school_, the worst we have heard is, that the pupils are not so advanced in any one science as some young men brought up in other schools are. It is admitted that they are eminently moral and amiable in their deportment; that they are very intelligent; and that their ideas have a wide range. In short, the objection, as it appears to us, is, that they are likely to become liberal-minded gentlemen, but not professors. Hofwyl is not a college where the only object is learning;--still less a monastery, where an austere and uniform rule prevails;--it is a little world, composed of different ranks and professions, and where individuality of character is preserved, and a variety of talents unfolded.

The patricians of Berne have been generally, from the beginning, unfavourable to the Institution; yet several of them have their sons in it, and many more are now endeavouring to procure admittance. We have learned very lately, that a decided and active enemy, many years first magistrate of the district where Hofwyl is situated, and lately dead, enjoined expressly in his last-will, that his sons should, if possible, be educated exclusively at Hofwyl!

_Treatise on Agriculture._

SECT. IV.

Of the Analysis of Soils, and of the agricultural relations between soils and plants.

We have seen that the earths have a threefold capacity; that they receive and lodge the roots of plants and support their stems; that they absorb and hold air, water and mucilage--aliments necessary to vegetable life; and that they even yield a portion of themselves to these aliments. But we have also seen, that they are not equally adapted to these offices; that their parts, texture and qualities are different; that they are cold or warm, wet or dry, porous or compact, barren or productive, in proportion as one or other may predominate in the soil; and that to fit them for discharging the various functions to which they are destined, each must contribute its share, and all be minutely divided and intimately mixed. In this great work nature has performed her part, but as is usual with her, she has wisely and benevolently left something for man to do.

This necessary march of human industry, obviously begins by ascertaining the _nature of the soil_. But neither the touch, nor the eye, however practised or acute, can in all cases determine this. _Clay_, when wet, is cold and tenacious--a description that belongs also to magnesian earths: _sand_ and _gravel_ are hard and granular; but so also are some of the modifications of lime: _vegetable mould_ is black and friable, but not exclusively so; for schistous and carbonaceous earths have the same properties.

It is here, then, that chemistry offers herself to obviate difficulties, and remove doubts; but neither the apparatus nor process of this science, are within the reach of all who are interested in the inquiry, and we accordingly subjoin a method, less comprehensive, but more simple and sufficiently exact, for agricultural purposes, and which calls only for two vases, a pair of scales, clean water and a little sulphuric acid.

"1st. Take a small quantity of earth from different parts of the field, the soil of which you wish to ascertain, mix them well together and weigh them; put them in an oven, heated for baking bread, and after they are dried, weigh them again; the difference will show the _absorbent power of the earth_. When the loss of weight in 400 grains, amounts to 50, this power is great, and indicates the presence of much animal or vegetable matter; but when it does not exceed twenty, the absorbent power is small, and the vegetable matter deficient.[2]

[2] See Davy's Elements.

"2d. Put the dried mass into a vase with one fourth of its own weight of clear water; mix them well together: pour off the dirty water into a second vase, and pour on as much clean water as before; stir the contents, and continue this process until the water poured off, is as clear as that poured on the earth. What remains in the first employed vase is _sand_, _silicious_ or _calcareous_.

"3d. The dirty water, collected in the second vase, will form a deposit, which (after pouring off the wa-ter) must be dried, weighed and _calcined_. On weighing it _after_ this process, the quantity lost will show the portion of _animal_ and _vegetable mould contained in the soil_; and,

"4th. This calcined matter must then be carefully pulverised and weighed, as also the first deposit of sand, but without mixing them. To these, apply (separately) sulphuric acid, and what they respectively lose in weight, is the portion of _calcareous_ or _aluminous earths_ contained in them. These last may be separated from the mass by soap lie, which dissolves them."[3]

[3] This manner of analysing soils is that described by M. Rose, member of the institute of France, &c. and recommended to French agriculturists.

Here is the light we wanted. In knowing the disease, we find the cure. Clay and sand qualify each other; either of these will correct an excess of lime; and magnesian earth, when saturated with _carbonic acid_, becomes fertile.

But entirely to alter the constitution of a soil, whether by mechanical or other means, is a work of time, labour and expense, and little adapted to the pecuniary circumstances of farmers in general. Fortunately, a remedy, cheaper, more accessible and less difficult, is found in that _great diversity_ of habits and character, which mark the vegetable races. We shall, therefore, in what remains of this section, indicate the principal of these, as furnishing the basis of all rational agriculture.

1st. _Plants have different systems of roots, stems and leaves, and adapt themselves accordingly to different kinds of soils:_ the Tussilago prefers clay, the Spergula sand; Asparagus will not flourish on a bed of granite nor Musus Islandicus on one of alluvion. It is obvious, that _fibrous rooted_ plants, which occupy only the surface of the earth, can subsist on comparatively stiff and compact soils in which those of the leguminous and cruciform families would perish, from inability to penetrate and divide.

2d. _Plans of the same, or of a similar kind, do not follow each other advantageously in the same soil._ Every careful observer must have seen how grasses alternate in meadows or pastures, where nature is left to herself. At one time, timothy, at another clover, at a third red-top, and at a fourth blue grass prevails. The same remark applies to forest trees; the original growth of wood, is rarely succeeded by a second of the same kind; pine is followed by oak, oak by chesnut, chesnut by hickory. A young apple tree will not live in a place where an old one has died; even the pear tree does not thrive in succession to an apple tree, but stone fruit will follow either with advantage. "In the Gautinois (says Bosc,) saffron is not resumed but after a lapse of twenty years; and in the Netherlands, flax and colzat require an interval of six years. Peas, when they follow beans, give a lighter crop than when they succeed plants of another family."[4]

[4] The ill effect of a succession of crops of the same kind was not unknown to the Romans. We have proof of this in the following passage of Festus: "Resistilibus ager fit qui continuo biennio seseritur farreo spico id est aristato, quad ne fiat _solent, qui pradia locant, excipere_."

3d. _Vegetables, whether of the name family or not, having a similar structure of roots, should not succeed each other._ It has been observed, that trees suffer considerably by the neighbourhood of sainfoin and lucern, on account of the great depth to which the roots of these plants penetrate--whereas culmiferous grasses do them no harm.

4th. _Annual or biennial trefoils, prevent the escape of moisture by evaporation, or filtration, from sandy and arid soils_, and should constantly cover them in the absence of other plants;[5] while _drying and dividing crops_, as beans, cabbages, chickory, &c. &c. _are best fitted to correct the faults of stiff and wet clays_.

[5] The "Sterilis tellus medio versatur in æstu" of Virgil, shows the opinion he entertained of a husbandry that left the fields without vegetation.

5th. _When plants, are cultivated in rows or hills, and the ground between them is thoroughly worked, the earth is kept open, divided and permeable to air, heat and water, and accordingly receives from the atmosphere nearly as much alimentary provision as it gives to the plant._ This principle is the basis of the drill husbandry.

6th. _All plants permitted to go through the phases of vegetation (and of course to give their seeds) exhaust the ground in a greater or less degree; but if cut green, and before seeding, they take little from the principle of fertility._

7th. _Plants are exhausters in proportion to the length of time they occupy the soil._ Those of the culmiferous kinds (wheat, rye, &c.) do not ripen under ten months, and during this period, forbid the earth from being stirred: while, on the other hand, leguminous plants occupy it but six months, and permit frequent ploughings. This is one reason why culmiferous crops are greater exhausters than leguminous; another is, that the stems of culmiferous plants become hard and flinty, and their leaves dry and yellow, from the time of flowering till the ripening of the seed--losing their inhaling or absorbing faculties--circulating no juices, and living altogether in their roots, and on aliments exclusively derived from the earth, whereas leguminous or cruciferous plants, as cabbages, turnips, &c. &c. have succulent stems, and broad and porous leaves, and draw their principal nourishment from the atmosphere. The remains of culmiferous crops, also are fewer, and less easily decomposed, than those of the leguminous family.

8th. _Meadows, natural and artificial, yield the food necessary to cattle, and, in proportion as these are multiplied, manures are increased and the soil made better._ Another circumstance that recommends them is, that so long as they last, they exact but little labour, and leave the whole force of the farmer to be directed to his arable grounds.[6]

[6] The good effect of these mixtures was known to the ancients, from whom the practice has descended to us.

9th. _Grasses are either fibrous or tap-rooted, or both. The remarks already made in articles 1, 2 and 3, apply also to them._ Timothy, red-top, oat-grass and rye-grass, succeed best in stiff, wet soils. Sainfoin does well on soils the most bare, mountainous and arid; lucern and the trefoils, (or clovers,) only attain the perfection of which they are susceptible, in warm, dry, calcareous earth.

10th. _The ameliorating quality of tap-rooted plants is supposed to be in proportion to their natural duration_; annual clover, (lupinella) has less of this property than biennial, (Dutch clover,) biennial less than sainfoin, and sainfoin less than lucern.

11th. _Any green crop, ploughed into the soil, has an effect highly improving_; but for this purpose, lupins and buckwheat (cut when in flower) are most proper.

12. _Mixed crops_ (as Indian corn, pumpkins, and peas and oats,) _are much and profitably employed_, and _with less injury to the soil than either corn or oats alone_.

SECTION V.

Of Practical Agriculture, and its necessary Instruments.

We begin this part of our subject with a few remarks on the instruments necessary to agriculture, which may be comprised under the well known names of the plough, the harrow, the roller, the threshing-machine, and the fanning mill.

I. Of the plough:

It is among the inscrutable dispensations of Providence, that the arts most useful to man, have been of later discovery--of slower growth, and of less marked improvement, than those that aimed only at his destruction.--At a time, when the phalanx and the legions were invented and perfected, and when the instruments they employed were various and powerful, those of agriculture continued to be few, and simple, and inefficient.