THE WISCONSIN FARMER.



neet with Lake Superior, would be about 2(
miles in length, with an average depth of fifta
feet, and half a mile in width.  It cuts the
copper range nearly midway from the Bay tc
the Lake, it being fourteen miles from thit
point by Portage Lake to Keweenaw Bay, and
twelve to Lake Superior. Upon each side the
hills of trap rock rise at an angle of some 20°
to a height of five and six hundred feet. Gy
these angles, and on these summits, are located
copper mines of remarkable richness, that are
being worked with great vigor and success. At
their base are located the villages of Hougton
and Hancock.



    EDUCATIONAL.

        The State Agricultural College.
   However persons may have differed as to the
policy of establishing an Agricultural College
by means of individual contributions and State
aid, there can be no question as to the propri-
ety of doing so, now that the General Govern-
ment, with an enlightened forecast, has pro-
vided an endowment-only asking of us that
we provide the necessary buildings.
  We are a great industrial community, and
nothing will so effectually secure our materia
and social prosperity as the better education
of the whole people-not only in the rudiments
of language and science, but also in the dis-
covered and approved application of the sci-
ences to the practice of their pursuits in life.
The bare recognition of this truth, on the part
of a few, has already wrought a great improve-
ment in Agriculture and the Mechanic arts, in
all parts of the civilized world; what, then,
may we not expect from its universal recogni-
tion and the united efforts of a whole people
for the establishment of an institution whose
sole work it shall be to advance, dignify and
ennoble the Industrial Arts?
  In Wisconsin, the common disregard of the
natural adaptations of various crops to the soils
in which they are attempted to be grown, the
almost total neglect to save and properly apply
manure, the burning of straw, shallow plow-
ing, the preponderance of unprofitable grain-
growing to the exclusion of sheep husbandry
and other equally profitable branches of stock-
raising, the failure of fruits, the destructive



ravages of noxious insects, and the absence of
what should be an extensive manufacturing
industry, all appeal, in language stronger than
we can use, for some means of educating the
farmers and mechanics in all the established
principles of these essential arts.
  It is our conviction that a sufficient number
of the influential citizens of this State appre-
ciate the force of this reasoning to give to this
new project their most cordial support, and we
have, therefore, no misgivings as to its ultimate
success. The other states are bestirring them-
selves in this important matter, and we trust
the people of Wisconsin will require of their
representatives in the Legislature a reasonable
liberality in the provisions necessary in order
to an acceptance of the grant in good faith.
  The attention of our readers is especially
directed to the extract bearing on this subject
from the Governor's Message. See the News
Department.

  Parents' Duty to the Neighborhood School.
  Ma. EDITOR:-As the result of a suggestion
in the November number of the FARMER, we
have in its last issue a valuable article on the
" Parent's Duty to the Neighborhood School."
I trust that your readers will not object to hear-
ing further upon so important a subject. As
the common or district school is the Alpha and
Omega of educational facilities to the majority
of the people, the duty of properly maintain-
ing this institution is imperative. It is nearly
allied to the Divine injunction, " Train up a
child in the wayheshouldgo." Herethe twig
is being bent that is to shape the destiny of the
future tree.
Mr. Editor, what I wish to impress upon the
hearts of your readers is, that just in the pro-
portion that you prosecute the work of edu-
cating your children in an economical and
Businesslike manner, will you be successful
.n attaining the object you have in view. If
you sow sparingly, you will reap sparingly.
What costs you nothing will bring you nothing.
You can no more have a good school, one
worthy of the day in which we live, without a
generous and judicious expenditure of time



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