The Hillsborough recorder. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1820-1879, 1854-04-19
From the American Agricultural.
make Farming Attractive to the
Young.


Young
In no point do farmers lail more i'm
the education OF their sons and daugh.
ters, than in neglecting to make their
rural homes attractive. With little
beauty in their dwellings, with few OBJ
jects upon the farm in which they have
a..direct personal interest, and taught
by. the conduct and language Of those
around them, that there are higher and
easier paths to wealth aud distinc tion,
it is little to be wondered that so ma
ny farmers sons long to escape from
THEFT laborious occupations and engage
in commercial pursuits. Mr.. G.. l..
Flint, Sec. Mass. Board Of Agriculture,
alluded to this subject very happily in
dinner speech at the September meet
ing Of the Norfolk County Agricultu :
raj Society. The following is an ex-
tract:
"Supposc the young are taught to
observe the character of soils and their
adaptation to different crops, the struc.
ture and nature Of plants, the habits
of insects injurious to vegetation, the
habits Of the beautiful birds so often
accused of theft. the great and strik-
ing peculiarities in the different breeds
Of animals. and the means Of improv-
ing them-will they not have subjects
enough to interest them in farming
They will find means of cultivating the
finest fruits and ornamental trees, Of
beautiiying the house, and give il an
air of ncatness and comfort. A little
taste in the arrangement of trees and
plants, added to cultivated mind,
soon finds within itself untold resour-
ccs Of living well and happily.
1t has always seemed to me, sir,
that the great want of New England
was to make farming attractive. And
here | can only echo the beautiful
words of your orator to-day. If we
would have our children follow farming
as pursuit, we must interest them in
It and fit them to pursue it intelligent
ly. Ii the mind is not engaged. the
tolls of the hand are irksome and taste.
less. If the mind is interested, if ev-
cry thought, every passion is aroused
to improve and excel, no labor is wca-
risome, no exertion too severe. To
make farming attractive to the young,
they should be educated for it. And
since life is short and knowledge inf
mite, they need not, perhaps, spend
years of the best part Of their lives in
such studies as are necessary only to
success in the law or in divinity. The
time will come when the farmer will
have more ample facilities for educat-
ing himself and his children. In the
mean time thousand objects, if pro-
pcrly observed and brought to notice,
will begin the work, aud that in the
very points of greatest practical i'm
portance.
"I,ut the young, it is said, are am
bilious, and cannot be satisfied with
the reputation of good and successful
farmers. They must go into the coun-
ting room to make money, and be
known as men of wealth, or they must
embark IN the intricate studies Of the
law, and through that upon the greater
uncertainties of politics, and achieve
distinction. and, as they think, honor,
they don't always go togcthcr,) in the
eyes Of the world. They forget the
brighter and purer reputation Of con-
ferring some permanent benefit on
their country in the improvement of its
agriculture. They forget that the very
men who fail at farming are men who
would fail at anything else, and that
their chances of success are equal in
farming to what they would be in 9th.
er pursuits, perhaps even greater, since
the field is wider and nobler. would
rather have the reputation of doing
something to improve the agriculture