Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1869-04-09
farm uno 6onsebolO.
Shall We Encourage Boys TO Stay on
the Farmi .Ft.' ..N,.

tne farml .Ff.f .. hr
BY all means, II they want to stay II
they have taste for farm life, and take
TO II more kindly than TO any other pur-
suit. IL boy takes an honest pride in
turning straight furrow, rearing fine
calves and building fine hay stacks, doubt
less the farm is the place for him. II he
prefers 20 go TO the county fair to attend.
ing Dan Rice's circus, il he selects the
Prairie FdTmer that came in the same
| mail with the New York LEDGER. that boy
has a taste for farming that II will do well
to encourage.
But how about the other boys, to whom
farming is an uncongenial employment,
and whose only lively step in the field Is
taken when the trumpet calls to dinner ?
Shall we encourage them TO stay on the
farm, with the fact staring us in the face
that they have no natural aptitude for the
business, and consequently will never be-
come good fsrmersp Much as we respect
and honor the pursuit of agriculture, we
/ think we should not. We cannot see how
either the farm or the boys are to DO
benefited by the procedure. The fact ia,
we have too many poorly managed farms,
and too many poor farmers TO hold out in,
duoements for increasing the number of
\ them.
twould be much wiser course, every
way, to find out what boy Is good for, IL,
indeed he is good for anything in particu.
lar, before you encourage him TO adopt
any particular calling. If the only good
hoy ever did aoout the farm was to re.
pair the pumps, hang gates, make mole.
traps, put in rake teeth, file the saw, and
hang the grind.stone, and he did these
things well, obviously the farm is not the
| place for him, but machine shop is.
! II boy will walk half dozen miles
after the days work is done, 20 hear po
lttical speech, If he takes time from his
play to attend trials before q Justice of the
peace, and sits up half the night, when hi
Is going to school, to learn defamation!
which bring down the house at spelling
school, most likely he will do the worlt
more good if you put law book and moi
a manure fork into his hand.
II he earns moro money trading Jack
knives and fish lines on rainy days, thar
he does hoeing potatoes and cutting grair
IN fair weather, give him chance to han
die yard stick, and not have him arount
troubling other boys who are handling
horse rakes and pitch forks, and like The
employment.
Again, if boy is skillful in skinninr
small animals and stufflng birds, If he prac
tised making pills of mud when he was 8
child and extracted teeth from the Jaws o
dead horses with pincers when he got
older; if he reads physiologies when his
brothers are engaged in perusing Robin.
son Crusoe, he will be far more likely tc
succeed with lancet than with a scythe.
1t has become very fashionable lately tc
exhort farmers to encourage their boys to
stay on the farm irrespective of their abili
ty or taste to become good farmers; but
we cannot see the proprlety of it, On the
other hand, we see many good reasons why
boys who do not promise to become good
farmers should be encouraged to try their
hands at something else while they are
still young. Because boy was born on a
farm 1t is no reason why he should always
stay there if nature gave him gifts for
something else, but denied him the inher.
ent faculties for becoming successful
farmer. In India persons are born into a
Caste but can never get out of it. In an.
cient Egypt children were obliged to fol
low the occupation of their parents to the
latest time. But we have never heard OF
any good, but heard of good deaI
of evil coming from it. The farm Is
a good place for boys to stay on unless
they have an aversion to farm life, and
have, at the same time, strong inclina
tion to go into some other kind of bust
ness that is more congenial to them; In
hwich case we think they had better &c
their way, and the sooner the better
| I11Hi1Ia HIIgIoap