Schooling for peasants : the Agricultural School of the Imperial Institute of Rio de Janeiro ( 1869-1889 )

The Agricultural School, an establishment of the Imperial Agricultural Institute of Rio de Janeiro, founded in 1869, housed orphans and poor boys so that they could be schooled in basic education and, at the same time, capacitated to field work. The main debates on agronomy and the difficulties that the Brazilian Empire met to deploy agricultural schools are discussed. Evidence exists that Agricultural Schools became feasible due to the fact that agricultural teaching was provided to poor children and orphans during a period prior to the Law of Free Birth (Lei do Ventre Livre). Since the Agricultural School is almost unknown by historiography, current paper contributes towards research on the history of Education, agricultural education and abandoned children.


Introdução
The Imperial Agricultural Institute of Rio de Janeiro (Imperial Instituto Fluminense de Agricultura) was established by the Brazilian Emperor Pedro II in 1860, together with other agricultural institutes in the former provinces of Bahia, Pernambuco and Sergipe (Brasil, 1859a(Brasil, , 1859b(Brasil, , 1860a(Brasil, , 1860b)).During the same period, the government also founded the Ministry for Agriculture, Commerce and Public Works (Macop) 1 .The above events reveals the State´s and the Emperor´s interests to comply with the vindications of rural barons which were dissatisfied with future changes such as the end of the slave trade and the Land Act, both decreed in 1850.
The Empire strived to improve its relationships with landowners who were actually its political and economic support.The establishment of agricultural institutes aimed at the elaboration of projects for the improvement of agriculture, changes in crop routine through the incorporation of scientific principles and the introduction of machines and tools for field work, without important alterations in the agricultural and export model current in the country.The abolition of slavery, a constant tension between landowners and the Government, would be suggested indirectly by the agricultural institutes through the employment of agricultural machinery, the settlement of immigrants on the plantations or examples of agricultural improvements in countries where slavery was no more.Agricultural learning was thus a relevant theme to enhance specialized labor force and, consequently, the modernization of field work.
Although the Imperial Agricultural Institute of Rio de Janeiro was a private enterprise with its own statute and properties, its activities were the object of yearly reports to the Ministry of Agriculture, Commerce and Public Works (Macop) though which it received funds.Its President and vice-president, the board of directors and council were nominated by the Emperor.Its members were actually public servants, landowners and men of science.The Imperial Agricultural Institute of Rio de Janeiro comprised 1 At first it was called Estado dos Negócios da Agricultura, Comércio e Obras Públicas.Henceforth Macop will be employed for the organ regardless of the several names it had during the period (Brasil, 1860c).three other enterprises: the Botanic Garden 2 , the Normal Farm 3 and the Agricultural Review 4 .
So that one may have a good knowledge on the motives for the establishment of an institute for the improvement of agriculture and, at the same time, dedicated to orphans, the context of the Brazilian Second Empire should be understood.
Studies on the history of the protection of needy people reveal that philanthropy embodied the so-called "scientific discourses" in the late 19 th century, featuring instruction projects aiming at labor as opposed to charity organizations (Marcílio, 2006).One may perceive the government´s intervention in activities and economic sectors which, up to that time, were ruled by religious institutions.According to Schueler and Gondra (2008), the Government, the Church and Civil Society were active forces in schooling during the Empire.
The governmental, religious and "civil" machine, alternately allies and belligerents, may not be seen as distinct forces, totally divided.Their activities are articulated even though not always in the same direction, with the same intensity and with the same resources, as may be perceived when one examines the educational stances of the 19 th century (Schueler & Gondra, 2008, p.16, author"s emphasis).
It is worthwhile analyzing Luís Pedreira do Couto Ferraz 5 , an example of the reconciliation of the three powers involved in education 2 Currently called the Botanic Garden of Rio de Janeiro in the district of the same name.The institution was founded in 1808 and ceded by the government to the Imperial Agricultural Institute of Rio de Janeiro in 1861.When Brazil became a Republic, it was transferred to the State.

3
The Normal Farm was close to the Botanic Garden where technical, scientific and experimental planting of trees and flower plants was accomplished.It aimed at improving vegetal varieties for better adaptation to soil and climate and for the improvement of their quality and productivity in agriculture.

4
The Revista Agrícola, established in 1869, disseminated information on rural activities in general for the "modernization" of agriculture and the shunning of traditional agricultural practices (Bediaga, 2013).

5
Luís Pedreira do Couto Ferraz (1818-1886) was titled baron and later Viscount of Bom Retiro.He was a close friend of Pedro II and was head of the Imperial Agricultural Institute of Rio de Janeiro for 21 years under the and in the work for needy people.Luis Pedreira was committed to the Second Empire´s political strategy, a member of the Santa Casa de Misericórdia, founder and director of important civil associations, with relevant posts in the government as president of the Province of Espírito Santo and Rio de Janeiro and a minister in the notorious Government of the Province of Paraná between 1854 and 1858.He was also president of the Imperial Agricultural Institute of Rio de Janeiro between 1865 and 1886.His public activities were full of schooling activities and the protection of needy people, such as the elaboration of Rules for Primary and Secondary Teaching of Rio de Janeiro (Decrees 1.331-A, of 17/2/1854), called the Couto Ferraz Reform.He established the Association for the Protection of Poor Children and became its president, and was a member of the Founding Board of the Brazilian Association for the Protection of Poor Children established in 1883 (Schueler, 2000).He was also very active in the foundation of the School for Needy Children (Souza, 2009;Martins, 2004;Rizzini, 2009).
The Couto Ferraz Reform provided free vacancies in primary schools in private boarder colleges and thus warranted help for poor children.Martins opines on the above-mentioned Reform: One of the most relevant laws for public schooling in Brazil occurred in 1854 at the office of the Viscount of Paraná.As Minister and Secretary of Imperial Business, Luís Couto Ferraz, prepared a reform for primary and secondary schooling for the schools of Rio de Janeiro which foresaw changes ranging from material aspects, such as the building of primary schools, including an School for poor children, and the establishment of a Normal School for the preparation and training of teachers (Martins, 2004, p. 40).
According to Castanha, the Couto Ferraz Reform was the main project for public education in the Empire.
We may surely state that the Couto Ferraz Reform was a watershed in the organization of public primary schooling in Imperial Brazil in Rio de Janeiro and in the other provinces.The ministerial ideas were embodied within the schooling reforms of the provinces.Reforms also occurred in secondary aegis of the Emperor.See also Limeira and Schueler (2008) and Bediaga (2014).
schooling and in higher education.The establishment of schools for children with special needs, such as the blind and deaf, hailed from that period (Castanha, 2007, p. 59).
It may be inferred that the Agricultural School, established during the Couto Ferraz administration in the Imperial Agricultural Institute of Rio de Janeiro, was actually a response to the Imperial project of the 1830s, as may be surmised from the articles, acts, manuscripts and debates on the need to establish an agricultural school.It is not our purpose to detail the several trends on the theme.The main events will be thus presented.
In 1837, the land adjacent to the Botanic Garden was donated to the Sociedade Auxiliadora da Indústria Nacional (SAIN) (Brasil, 1837a) for the establishment of agricultural teaching to prepare "[…] capable peasants as in several European countries […] from poor and needy young people".According to the 1837 ministerial report, the SAIN rejected the concession since "[…] several conditions were too burdensome and the usufruct period was greatly limited [...]" (Brasil, 1837b, p. 34).However, negotiations continued even though SAIN insisted in greater government aid.
On the other hand, the administration established the Escola de Agricultura Teórica e Prática of Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas (Arquivo Nacional, 1838) for more ambitious purposes: besides lessons, the board had to publish a journal, construct a museum and catalogue exotic and native plants which should be planted and acclimatized.The project was a failure and the agricultural school postponed.However, the debate on the need to establish agricultural schools in Brazil was prevalent within the society of the period.For instance, Carlos Augusto Taunay6 , in his 1839 Manual do agricultor brasileiro criticized the great number of lawyers in Brazil and proposed the foundation of agronomy schools on model farms which would be frequented by [...] the offspring of wealthy people who would be, in the future, masters of a great number of slaves on plantations and farms, but educated in the noble science of Agriculture, the basis of civilization, source of all richness, especially the Brazilian one.The admittance of a certain number of young people of good character, albeit poor, is welcome.They would be able to be excellent administrators, professors of Agronomy and other identical subjects which the provinces and town would prefer to provide for (Taunay, 2001, p. 282).
Luís Riedel´s paper 7 published in the 1840 SAIN journal "O Auxiliador" should also be underscored.According to the editor, the original manuscript was lost but the journal "[…] was concerned in putting into practice what the SAIN, in its patriotic intent, has proposed to the Assembly of the Province" (Riedel, 1840, p. 100), or rather, the establishment of an agricultural school.
In his paper Ideias sobre a criação de uma Escola Normal, Riedel critically analyzed the general status of agriculture in the country and suggested that the government implemented the idea of establishing the school and proposed the kind of students that should frequent it: Students over fourteen year should be admitted in the school, free of charge, who are literate, intelligent, of good character and morals, with preference to orphans and the sons of poor parents overburdened with much offspring (Riedel, 1840, p. 105).
The author listed in detail instructions on the land, crops, publications, catalogues, hiring of servants, administrative personnel, competences and others, but was adamant in refusing the establishment of the school in the Botanic Garden: If the Government wishes to establish, as it tried, a Normal School of Agriculture at the already determined site called Lagoa de Rodrigo de Freitas, where at present there is an improperly called Botanic Garden, or in the surrounding area, we would like to declare that the contiguous establishment 7 Riedel (1791Riedel ( -1861)), a German naturalist, arrived in Brazil together with the Langsdorff Expedition.He had worked in several European botanic gardens and was a member of the SAIN´s Agricultural Committee. of these two schools is impossible, or rather, by their very nature, they should form only one initiative (Riedel, 1840, p. 106).
In 1836, the government ordered Felisberto Caldeira Brant Pontes de Oliveira Horta, Marquise of Barbacena, to invite Swiss couples from Fellenberg, with knowledge on agriculture and available to work in Brazil, experts in agricultural practice and teaching.A letter of the Marquis to Candido Batista de Oliveira8 gives information on such intent: When the Regent, in the name of the Emperor, established a training agricultural school on the land near the Botanic Gardens, he ordered me to invite to Rio de Janeiro two Swiss couples, experts in teaching and practice of all agricultural methods, employed on the normal plantations of Mr. Fellenberg, and to buy them tools that they need and require, at the expense of the government (Aguiar, 1896, p. 925-926).Batista de Oliveira did not follow instructions and instead of the Swiss couples hired Alexandre Maritri, introduced as teacher in agriculture.The marquise and the imperial government refused to accept the teacher, saying that Brazil "already had several savants".Maybe the idea was to bring to Brazil people with enough experience for the implementation of that kind of project.
Since the first discussions on agronomy in Brazil ensued, there existed a sort of agreement on the need to establish theoretical and practical school on agriculture.Important people stated that investing in an improvement in agriculture was mandatory.The farmers´ routine flaws and ignorance should be abolished and these people should have knowledge on modern techniques and capacitate them for the use of agricultural tools and equipments.However, such consensus was not deep enough to produce funding and other materials for the project.From time to time to subject matter used to emerge for a brief discussion and then suppressed once more.
It should be underscored that the Normal Farm of Fellenberg in Switzerland was always highly praised and the Brazilian government was concerned with its installation in Brazil.Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg (1771-1844), influenced by Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827), was an innovator in teaching methods for poor children and orphans, and implanted an educational system on his farm near Berne.Initially devoted to agriculture to test and develop adequate management practices and new technologies, the experiment housed orphans and needy people.Coupling studies on agriculture and a strong moral appeal, Fellenberg broadened the institution and invited students of the middle classes and started a teacherformation school.There were in fact seven schools on the same campus and Mr Fellenberg´s School became a model of an education system frequented by children from several European countries.Other schools were founded and Switzerland became a teaching reference beyond the agricultural perspective (Jones & Garforth, 1997).
The suggestion to establish and agricultural school similar to that in Switzerland was constantly mentioned.When the Agricultural School was founded, Couto Ferraz remarked: In my opinion, the new establishment should be based on the model of the Swiss agricultural schools, with much improvement, with the specialization of La Schartanne, of the town of Trogen, canton of Appenzell, whose regime, with regard to the school of poor children, seems to be the most adequate with regard to technical teaching and its application school (Brasil, 1869a, p. 22).
Similarly, Miguel Antonio da Silva, editor of the Revista Agrícola of the Imperial Agricultural Institute of Rio de Janeiro, wrote an article titled Asilo Agrícola in which he showed that Fellenberg´s school allied formal education to agricultural practice to provide a profession to needy young people.The article ends with a note on children born in Brazil after the Law of Free Birth and on the need to spread such similar schools throughout the country.In fact, the Agricultural School should be the "[…] best model for such establishments" (Silva, 1872, p. 47).
In his diary, the Emperor Pedro II shows his support for the establishment of an agricultural school: "The Institute´s aim is mainly the establishment of a practical agricultural school" (Bediaga, 1999(Bediaga, , v. 9, 12/5/1862)).A document by Frederico Burlamaqui 9 , the secretary of the 9 Frederico Leopoldo César Burlamaqui (1803-1866) had a PhD in Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the Military School where he lectured till retirement.One of the brightest people in the Empire, he was a members Imperial Agricultural School of Rio de Janeiro, synthetizes the discussions of people who desired the study of agricultural sciences, or rather, they should be based on "scientific principles" for the improvement of agriculture.He was highly critical of the government for postponing agronomic studies and preferring other studies.
If the government is responsible for public teaching, ranging from speculative sciences to free arts; if it maintains at high costs the academies of Law, Medicine, Mathematics, Arts, Music and Theatre, it is highly convenient that, on an equal basis, it showers funds on the art that partakes of life and with its progress public prosperity thrives (Burlamaqui, 1860(Burlamaqui, -1862, p. 110-112), p. 110-112).
Burlamaqui legitimizes agronomic knowledge even though he knew the difficulties in implanting an agricultural school in the country.He was, in fact, defending teaching in rural schools, but he died before the establishment of the Agricultural School, characterized by two aims: an agricultural school and a school for orphans.

The history of the Agricultural School
In spite of every effort made, the founding documents for the Agricultural School are not extant and current research has been foregrounded on material found in the newspapers and official documents, such as minutes and ministerial reports of the period.Discussions in current paper inserts the Agricultural School within the debates on the History of Education and collaborates towards future research.In fact, current investigation will not exhaust the whole subject matter.
The Agricultural School was inaugurated on the premise of the Casa do Salitre in the Botanic Garden, "[…] similar to the Swiss establishments" (Brasil, 1869b, p. 19).The president of the Imperial Agricultural Institute of Rio de Janeiro was eager to underscore the difference in scale between the establishment that was being founded and the old idea of an agricultural school: of several institution, including the foundation and during the first years of the Agricultural Imperial Institute of Rio de Janeiro where he was secretary general.His scientific production is vast and comprises Geology, Mathematics, Metallurgy and Agronomy.
Begonha BEDIAGA One should always keep in mind that the Institute is not founding the complete theoretical and practical course in Agriculture.It has not the means to do so, nor will it have them in the near future.Such an establishment should have a great deal of lessons, specialized personnel and great expenditure for its establishment and maintenance (Brasil, 1869c, p. 21).
Since Couto Ferraz tried to guarantee its funding, he introduced the Agricultural School as a school linked to professional teaching in Agriculture as a form of charity based on Christian morals.The enterprise was justified because of the backwardness of the peasant with regard to "modern" agricultural practices.However, the president of the Institute broadened the Institute´s mission when he also included the most fragile people of contemporary society.The following picture will make this clear.What were the motives that prompted the Imperial Agricultural Institute of Rio de Janeiro to select orphans as the target people to implement agricultural teaching and thus supplementing its initial aimthe formation and training of people for rural labor -, or rather, the mission of giving assistance to vulnerable people?
The establishment of the Agricultural School occurred within a historical period when the State tried to shoulder assistance to the poor, which had been until then the responsibility of religious institutions.In the debates on the Law of Free Birth which was being discussed in parliament, the fate of those who would be free on the promulgation of the law was being debated.The personal endeavor of Pedro II for its approval has also to be taken into account (Carvalho, 1996).Such initiatives as the Agricultural School would be a response to those who insisted that children born of female slaves would be merely left to their fate and totally abandoned.In the wake of debates on the need to abolish slavery, the State sought alternatives in the slow and gradual process to replace slavery labor.It may be inferred that by providing primary teaching and agricultural information to orphan children, the Agricultural School channeled public funding for its survival, albeit timidly, when compared to the aims originally proposed.
At first, the team running the Agricultural School comprised a director, a pedagogue who was also the teacher, a secretary and two servants.According to Couto Ferraz, the aim of the Imperial Agricultural Institute of Rio de Janeiro in founding the Agricultural School was: The education of poor children in field work, giving them a true character by work and religion, providing them, at the same time, with the necessary instructions so that, after some time, they become good administrators or, at best, good foremen who are so required on Brazilian farms (Brasil, 1869c, p. 21).
The Agricultural School had three aims in view: to give a haven to orphans, provide primary schooling and capacitate free men for rural labor.The latter aim was highly difficult to achieve in a school within a city whose life style and habits were very difficult from those that had to be implanted in its pupils.
There was a great concern in providing lessons on music, for instance, as may be surmised with regard to news on the musical band of the Agricultural School.There was a ceremony in which the teenagers gave a musical performance under the direction of Romualdo Pagani (Gazeta de Notícias, 8 de maio de 1877).Other solemn activities followed, such as religious, official and beneficent feasts and others.The young men learned how to use machines and agricultural instruments, deal with domestic animals bred for food; they frequented the carpentry and blacksmith shops of the Normal Farm of the Imperial Agricultural Institute of Rio de Janeiro where they had practical lessons in field work.

New premises
Since its establishment, the premises of the Agricultural School were provisional, unhealthy and were not fitted for the enterprise.Its transference to the Fazenda do Macaco 10 started to be discussed by the government in the 1870s, but was concluded in 1884.The man responsible for this transference was Couto Ferraz.A two-kilometer-long railway was built to manage the distance between the plantation and the Botanic Garden.
The Emperor, several members of the government, many academics and journalists were present during the inauguration of the new premises.The main speech was delivered by Nicolau Joaquim Moreira, the director of the Agricultural School, who qualified its trajectory as very slow even though the poor young men were always provided for.He classified teaching as "essentially practical and elementary theoretical".He made it a point that it was not a School of Agronomy since it did not train candidates in Agronomy but simply an establishment which tried to "[…] help the needy orphan and tried with all effort to replace the human machine by the intelligent laborer and the ingenious administrator by a true farm manager in all the rural establishments of the country" (Moreira, 1884, p. 183).
In his speech, Moreira criticized slavery, burning for planting, the felling of forests, to use of the ax and the hoe, soil degradation and monoculture.He was representing the ideas of intellectual people who 10 The Fazenda do Macaco lay close to the Botanic Garden, in the modern district called Horto.There is currently the Escola Nacional de Botânica Tropical of the Botanic Garden of Rio de Janeiro, whose premise is called the Solar da Imperatriz.condemned lack of information and insisted on correct knowledge on farming, which had to be provided by science: "We will understand that agriculture is not a purely manual industry since, besides being an art, it has all the characteristics of science, due to its rules and general principles derived from the comparative examination of facts" (Moreira, 1884, p. 183).
Moreira had become director of the Agricultural School the previous year and continued to be the editor of the Revista Agrícola, a task that he fulfilled since 1879.The Imperial Agricultural Institute of Rio de Janeiro was at that moment under his responsibility and his speech revealed the new directions not merely for the Agricultural School but also for the Institute.
The recently inaugurated premises of the Agricultural School comprised a house with 15 windows and two large doors, a chapel, a library with approximately 400 books on literacy and agriculture, a dormitory for forty students, and other sectors.Next to the premises there were the stables, the feeding troughs and a place for physical exercises 11 .The Agricultural School had an average of 20 students but the number reached 50 young men when it moved to the Fazenda do Macaco.Activities were amplified and included the breeding of swine, cattle, silkworms and several types of fowls.

Conclusion
We have seen that the installation of the Normal School of Agriculture in the 1830s within the boundaries of the Botanic Gardens of the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas and later the establishment of the Agricultural School in the 1860s were polemical issues and evaded the main issue to make feasible agricultural teaching in Brazil in the wake of economic and political conditions of the country.There was a sort of consensus among the imperial elite population with regard to the need to establish agricultural school even though the political will was not strong enough for its execution within the desired terms.The Agricultural School, established on provisional premises (its transference to the Fazendo do Macaco occurred after 14 years), with the triple mission of giving a haven to poor orphans, giving them basic schooling and instructing them on farming, revealed how difficult it was to put into practice a project dedicated exclusively to the teaching of agriculture.The religious orders had previously the task of providing boarding houses for needy people but the State decided to take over the mission due to the Law of Free Birth and to the consequent demand for assistance that free children born of female slaves required.The provision of primary schooling and agricultural labor to orphans, the Agricultural School collected funds for its survival even though it had difficulties to put into practice its grandiloquent proposals.
It is strange that the Agricultural School was not mentioned in the speeches and in the debates reported in the proceedings of the 1878 Agricultural Congress.After all, it was an establishment funded by the government and was already nine years old.To make matters worse, several speeches insisted on the non-existence of Agricultural Schools in the country and asked the government to establish them.Pedro Dias Gordilho Paes Leme, member of the Imperial Agricultural Institute of Rio de Janeiro, was the only person to mention the Agricultural School and he did not praise it: "Where are our agricultural schools?The speaker is a member of the Agricultural Institute but acknowledges that, in spite of good will and the effort involved, the association has still not produced any satisfactory results" (Carvalho, 1988, p.133).
One may suppose that the Agricultural School was an assay for more future important and long lasting projects.Criticism against the school reveal more grandiose projects but with great difficult for their deployment due to scanty funding, partly caused by the low political importance with regard to poor orphans and the professionalization of salaried rural activities.

11
For a complete description of the Agricultural School on the Fazenda do Macaco (Descrição do Asilo agrícola…, 1884)