Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1869-01-08

fail, and what would become of us Our
boys, as they grow UP, must be taught the
elements of agriculture, practically as well
They must go from the lab
oratory to the ie'i, and from the field to
the laboratory. IN this way they will ac-
quire that fondness for agriculture SO in
dispensible to sue cess, and which the rising
generation are so lamentably deficient
And whilst we have SO much to say for the
boys, We would not forget the girls.
Unfortunately our female education
is too often on the curtain calico patterm-
nearly all glass. with very little to support
it. How poorly it prepares them, lin the
language of the great apostle), ''to marry
and guide the house," alas too many could
testify. Domestic ecOnomy-a main sup
port to agriculture, and which bears SO
important relation to domestic happiness,
must be brought to higher standard OF
efficiency and popularity in our female
seminaries. Our girls must be taught to
know that they will fall bslow the duties
appropriate to their sex, and demanded by
the requirements of the times, if they do
not learn practically as well as theoretical
ly the duties OF the dairy and kitchen, as
well as ornamental accomplishments, and
the more solid studies which prepare them
for the still higher vocation Of women.
And here we must put in plea for home
educatlon-that is to say, for our own
schools in preference to schools abroad
How much wiser it would be to build up
schools in our own county and city, than
to be running abroad for them, on the de-
lusive theory that "distance lends en-
chantment to the view - to sensible peo
pie this needs not much argument to show.
We can safely say that no community can
Io~, 81 fat, 41,n{ n 1t Loo
well to home schools and he who sends
his child abroad and refuses to support and
help build up good schools at home, is not
less absurd in his course of conduct than
if he should refuse to support the Gospel at
home, among his neighbcrs, and still pay
largely for its spread in distant communi-
ties. A Northern newspaper, in one of its
recent issues, advises emigrants to go
60 South in small colonies of from forty
to sixty families, SO that they may build
up school and church of their own. How
shrewdly these people calculate prosperity
on the basis of the school and church, not
in New England, after they have left it, but
at home in their midst.
Children should be educated, as far as
possible, in home institutions where the
influences Of home may be often felt !;
where their sympathies may be turned in
favor of building up and sustaining their
own section and neighborhood, and where
that ennobling sentiment of love for home,
and ones Immediate section, may not be
'blunted by this kind of youthful expatria-
ton.
We cannot conclude this report without
some reference to the land scrip, so wisely
and beneticently donated by Congress to
the State for the education of the indus
trial classes. We trust these lands may
yet be recovered and located, and sold for
their legitimate obJects-the education of
the industrial classes and not the enriching
of spectators. Our industrial pursuits now
more than ever need the revenue that can
and ought to be derived from this source.
We call upon our Legislature to look we'll
to the management and disposition Of this
fund, and not allow a perversiOn Of this
important trust Let it be applied as ORR
ginally intended, and not diverted from its
legitimate purposes. Should any further
national legislation be necessary in refer
ence to this important measure of relief to
our Industrial classes, We call on our mem
bers in Congress to secure it. The other
branch Of our subject must be reserved for
a separate report, our limits will not admit
entering on it further than to say, that ag-
ricultural books, libraries, farmers jour
nails, lectures, essays, &c, on agriculture,
are all most important auxiliaries of agri-
cultural education.
a. r. BLACK.
5. S. SATCHwELL,
OWEN ALDERMAN