The Weekly Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, O. [Ohio]) 1861-1???, 1863-01-14
farm aud Nansehold.
From Moore's Rural New Yorker.
Educated Farmers.

Among the advantages which the world
may derive from an educated class OF farm
ers, is il too much to expect that wo may
in the future have authors of books, men
eminent in literature, whose culture has not
been exclusively mentalH regard ii as an
evil that, heretofore, nearly all who have
occupied the public ear, and led and edu.
Gated the public mind, have had all ex.
olusvely mental culture. to the almost total
neglect of muscular development; and as n
consequence our literature is tinged to some
extent with cerebral disease. Cowpcr,
among male authors, and Charlotte Brontc,
among female, are examples OF high but
diseased development of mind, attracting
the admiration of the world, and acquiring
for themselves brilliant fame, and yet they
were as the blooming and false ripe peaches
which fall to the ground before the true
peaches mature, ard their works may be
pictured by the same comparison.
Muscular labor can only be enjoyed nay,
can only he tolerated by those whose health
full muscles and hardy frames are Injured to
it by long practice. When it becomes
habitual it is a source of enjoyment, and IN
time an element of happiness which cannot
be spared. But when lad is taken from
agricultural labor and applied to course of
severe and long continued study, and at the
same time deprived of abundant muscular
exercise, that exercise soon becomes pain
full to him, aud he regards ii with aversion.
The painful fatigue which accompanies
continued bodily labor under such circum-
stances, seldom fails to disgust the young
student with that labor az q means of sub.
sistence, and to turn his hopes toward the
bar tho pulpit, the army, or the counting
room The educated mind Of the country is
being thus continually drawn from labor,
and concentrated in other professions, which
still more adds to their attractions. And rs
knowledge is power" the professions
named become powerful and surround them
selves with much that is to the disadvantage
of muscular labor. For amputating a finger
twenty-five dollars will be charged by Il sur
geon; for cutting off a saw-loE twenty-five
cents is ample compensation to the laborer.
have observed that in the generation to
which belong, and which is now approach
ing the close of life, the few farmers who
have acquired wealth are mostly those
whose literary qualifications have been
forced on them by, rather than led to- their
success. Their minds are powerful, but not
much educated by immediate contact with
books. The threshing the reaper,
the revolving rake, the improved plow, the
best methods of cultivating the soil and
other fruits OF mental effort have been theirs
because all these things surroSnd them.
Their minds are strong, and the fruit OF
mind is seen in their success. But if in
carly life they had passed. through u course
of study, approhend that. in most cases
agriculture would have lost, and other call
ings gained, thor services.
In early life passed some years as stu
don't, thon sOmo years in 4 aCOmmOrCiaI count
ing room, then became Western farmer
In the latter capacity | have swung the aX
day after day for weeks in succession, also
the grain cradle and scythc; have pitched
from sixty TO ono hundred tuns of hay and
grain annually, havo followed the plow with
delight and have bent over the hoe when
to use the expression of a tellow-laborcr
hOcing stuck by us like brother"
claim, therefore, to know something by cx
porienco of both mental and muscular labor
am convinced that either, when exclusive
will fail in making the best mon and
women.
If these remarks arc true two conclusions
are apparent: lst That students designed
for farmers should have daily muscular cxcr.
else; and, ID Those authors whose culture
has been exclusively mental had better
write on other topics than that of muscular
labor, for it il extremely doubtful il they
can understand the subject.
PETER HATHAWAY.