sand millions of capital which was unprofitably invested in the slaves, three fold multiplied in amount,, would have assumed the form of improved agriculture, more and better houses, more and larger towns and cities, more manufactories, and more commerce.

But I by no means assent to the truth of the proposition, that the freedmen will not work as well under the incitements of ambition and self-interest as they did under the fear of punishment. The free negroes of the free States in past years, though laboring under a mountain of unjust prejudice and proscription, though excluded by statute from the more honorable professions, and by mob violence from many of the humbler, have never been more a burden to society, in proportion to numbers, than have white people. Even in the south, where the tyranny of law and the tyranny of custom have been more severe than in the free States, the free negroes managed to live, and in many cases to accumulate property. I have for many years believed that a fallacy has existed in the reports of the census, by which it is made to appear that the free negroes, north and south, are increasing in numbers at a rate less than half that of other classes. The fallacy is not in the compilers of the census, but in the original collection of the statistics. In other words, there has been a strong temptation on the part of the nearly white mulattoes to pass themselves off for white persous. In all the southern, as well as the northern States, there was, either by statute, or by ⚫judicial decision, a limit beyond which a person of African descent ceased to be placed in that category. This was generally the third or fourth remove from the original black ancestor, so that if a man had less than that proportion of the African in him, he was in law regarded as a white man, and could sit on juries and vote; and there are many eminent instances among this class of families who have risen to social, as well as political distinction in the south. This fact is well understood in all the older southern States. When the mulatto family or individual has arrived at the doubtful confine which separates the two races by a mere shade of coloring, prudence dictates emigration to some distant part of the country, where the genealogy of the family is unknown. The enterprising novus homo has grown rich and taken social rank, it may be, with the best, and at length, when, after years of prosperity and honor, a breath of scandal, like the poisonous simoon, reaches the neighborhood, that the genealogical tree has been grafted upon an African stalk, it is too late to shake it from its firm base. It is dangerous even to allude to the sinister fact, and may involve a duel. The gossips may whisper in secret corners, but the rich and powerful man maintains his place in society. In the ten thousand instances where no great success attends the career of the new man, his origin is perhaps never discovered by the new friends and acquaintances he has made in his new place of abode. And after all, the prejudice against the blood of the African is more conventional than inherent in each individual composing society. No man will knowingly accept counterfeit money, by which he is to lose; but it is a discreditable fact that the world is not over scrupulous about accepting doubtful coin or bills, provided they are current. And so with the social world, as it regards genealogies. It is known at the south, and I suppose in the free States, that certain families have the taint of African blood in their veins; but they are rich and respectable, have married into good families, perhaps filled high offices in church or State, and have thus the stamp of current coin. They are accordingly received at par value, whether at the ballot-box or at the social board, and no questions asked.

There were other causes during the continuance of slavery for the slow increase of the free negro population of the south, during the last twenty years. These were, first, "unfriendly legislation," by which they were compelled or powerfully urged to leave that portion of the Union for the north, or for foreign countries; and, in the second place, it is a well-attested fact that many were reduced to slavery by fraud and violence. It became a branch of the negro trade to kidnap and run off free negroes from the older States, where they

were numerous, to the southwest, where their labor was in demand. A brave and true-hearted Marylander assures me that he, with his father, had at various times rescued twenty-three free negroes from the clutches of the negro traders on the Chesapeake bay, and many well-attested cases of the kind are on record. It would be a miracle if any race should flourish under such oppressions.

The following facts from the census, showing the decline of the free negroes in Louisiana, can only be explained in one or all of the ways here described. The free negro population of that State reached its maximum of 25,502 in the year 1840; in 1850 there were but 17,462, and in 1860 the number was 18,547. Now it cannot be pretended that the climate of Louisiana is less congenial to the negro than to the white man, nor that the means of living are not as much within the reach of that class in that State as in other parts of the south. The rapid decline of the free negroes, therefore, can only be explained in one or all of the three ways I have pointed out. They must have been in part driven out by cruelty, and enslaved, while others were passing rapidly by the process of miscegenation" into the ranks of the white people. From what is known of the state of society in Louisiaña, and especially in New Orleans, where the majority of the free negroes resided, there is much reason to believe that the decline in their numbers is due rather to the bleaching process than to the stern cruelty which would expel, exterminate or enslave them; although these latter causes of the decline of that unfortunate class were in operation.

WORKING OF EMANCIPATION.

But there is tangible evidence of the fact that the freedmen will work, in the state of things now existing in the south. The monthly report of this Department, for February, has a table of the principal productions of agriculture in the loyal States during the past year. Included in it are the States of Maryland, Missouri, and Kentucky. The two former abolished slavery in the years 1864 and 1865, while in Kentucky the institution was practically broken up by the events of the war, by the enlistment of a large portion of the ablebodied slaves, and by the practical freedom granted them by the military authorities. Maryland, alone, presents anything like a fair test of what the negroes will do in a state of freedom. Her people were at peace among themselves throughout the year, and were free from invasion from the south. Still it is to be remembered that thousands of the laboring blacks and whites were in the military service of the United States, which circumstance will fully explain the slight falling off which took place in some of her productions, compared with the year 1859, as reported in the census, if it was not offset by the equivalent gain in others. The figures for the two years are as follows:

The reader will remark that nearly a million more bushels of Indian corn was produced in 1865 than in 1859; that there was a gain of above two million bushels of oats, and a small gain in the quantity of potatoes, (common.) These excesses of production with free labor will very nearly offset the loss on the crops of tobacco, wheat, and rye; and, taken in connexion with the fact above stated in regard to the enlistment of thousands of laborers in the military service, the crop in 1865 must be regarded as the larger of the two.

Kentucky and Missouri were during the past year in a state of civil commotion bordering at times upon civil war. Thousands of negroes and white men were under arms, and, as regards Kentucky, as many thousands of both races were fugitives, the whites in the more southern States, and the blacks in the northern States. These well-known facts fully account for the falling off in the crops.

It is seen that the crops of grain, hay, and potatoes in 1865 are not far from full, in comparison with those of 1859. The tobacco crop is just half that produced before the war. This must be regarded as a very surprising result when the circumstances are taken into view, and it leaves no ground to doubt that the south will resume its former thrift and industry. The results in Missouri are similar:

It is apparent from the above table that the crop of 1865, raised amid civil strife, is more than two-thirds that of 1859. The corn crops are in the ratio of five to seven, while the hay crop produced last year excels the other by onefourth in amount. The hay crop is next in value and importance in Missouri to Indian corn, and exceeds the tobacco crop three-fold.

There was much complaint throughout the south that the negroes would not work immediately upon the termination of the war and the enforcement of emancipation. But no fact can be clearer than that the indisposition to work on the part of the negroes was caused by the inability to pay on the part of the whites. They were not willing to work without wages, and in the general

disruption of society which existed some months after the surrender of the rebel forces, there was, in fact, but little work to do. Only partial crops had been planted during the last throes of the confederacy, in March, April, and May, and when peace came it was too late to put in larger ones. That thousands should be idle under such circumstances was to be expected, and it is an updeniable fact that there was quite as much idleness among the whites as among the blacks. But in spite of much bad feeling and occasional disorders, there is a general disposition among all classes to resume habits of regular labor. There are still to be found groups of helpless women and children who need the support of the government. They have been driven from their homes, in many cases by their former owners, (as they say,) because their husbands and brothers have left; and they have been abandoned by their husbands, if they ever had any. That they are unable to support their children and themselves in the present disordered state of southern society is not to be wondered at, nor does the fact furnish a sufficient reason for condemning the whole race as idle and worthless. According to the reports of the Freedmen's Bureau, as many of the white people as blacks of the south need government aid, and receive daily or weekly grants of rations.

It would be a most surprising fact if four millions of people suddenly released from centuries of bondage should not indulge in a protracted holiday, and the wonder is that the negroes have demeaned themselves with so much moderation. The fact would not be creditable to them if they failed to show their appreciation of the boon of freedom by a degree of noisy demonstration, accompanied by idleness for a brief season. To remain at home and pursue ordinary occupations with stolid indifference at such a time, they must have been less or more than human. But the idleness exhibited by the negroes has, for the most part, been inevitable in consequence of the lack of remunerative employment. No rational man could expect them all to go to work quietly for their former masters without a prospect of fair wages, yet, in point of fact, thousands have done so, and there is abundant reason for believing that, as a class, the negroes will become an industrious, thrifty, and law-abiding people, eminently docile, and emulous of improvement.

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES.

BY HENRY F. FRENCH, PRESIDENT OF THE MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

Until the close of the past century we find no account of any school or col. lege of agriculture. In 1799 Thaer, the celebrated German writer upon agriculture, founded at Celle, in Hanover, an agricultural school, and in 1806 the king of Prussia granted him a large tract of land, which he exchanged for another at Mæglin, where, in 1807, he founded a practical school of agriculture, which, in 1810, was constituted the royal school of agriculture.

This school is especially interesting, not only because it was the earliest on record, but also because it furnishes an excellent model, in many respects, for similar institutions. It is thus described by an English traveller who visited it in 1820: It comprised a model farm of 1,200 acres, and a college for instruction. The education was partly theoretical and partly of a practical description. The former was provided with three professors, who lived upon the premises: one for mathematics, chemistry, and geology; one for the veterinary art, and the third for botany and the use of the various vegetable productions of the materia medica as well as for entomology. The practical instruction was communicated by an experienced agriculturist, who pointed out the method of applying the principles of the several sciences to the daily routine of husbandry. The course commenced in September. During the winter months the time of the pupil was occupied in the study of mathematics, and the six books of Euclid were mastered by him, whilst in the summer the knowledge thus obtained was applied to the measurement of land, timber, buildings, and other practical purposes. The first principles of chemistry were also unfolded. By means of a good but economical apparatus various experiments either on a large or small scale were performed. For the larger ones, the brew-house and still-house, with their appendages, were found to be highly useful.

Much attention was directed to the analysis of the soils, and the different sorts met with, distinguished according to the relative proportion of their component parts, were arranged on the shelves with great order and regularity. There was an extensive botanic garden arranged according to the system of Linnæus, an herbarium containing a large collection of dried plants, a series of skeletons of different animals connected with husbandry, and models of agricultural implements-all open to the examination of students. The various implements used upon the farm were all made by smiths, wheelwrights, &c., residing around about the institution; and the pupils were allowed access to the workshops, and encouraged to make themselves masters by minutely inspecting the implements and the niceties of their construction.

This school is set down in Dr. Hitchcock's report in 1851 as still flourishing, with four professors, twenty students, and 2,480 acres of land.

In the same year, 1799, Fellenberg established upon his estate of Hofwyl, near Berne, Switzerland, his celebrated institution, where, in addition to a school for the poor, was also one for the sons of gentlemen of wealth who wished to study agricultural science and practice. This institution survived its founder about three years, and was discontinued about 1847. In the same year, 1799, the Prince Schwartzenberg founded a similar institution at Kruman, in Bohemia, on