The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1872-03-02
FARM IND HOUSEHOLD,
FARM APPRENTICES.

A FEW WORDS TO OUR YOUNG MEN-pREs-
EST CONDITION OF THE AMERICAN FARMER.
In this age Of labor-saving machinery
and in this new land, where, already, our
cities are ver-supplied with boys whose
parents cannot support them in idleness,
we are surprised to see that, as yet, farm
ers have held out no inducements to the
sons of city mechanics and of small traders
to 60 into the country, there, on farms, to
acquire practical knowledge of at least
the rudiments of agricultural knowledge.
All through the British Isles, the system
OF farm apprenticeship is understood, and
successfully carried out. In Scotland,
especially, almest all of the large indie
pendent Lowland farmers advertise to take
apprentices. The lads vary from twelve to
eighteen years of age, and are from all
classes of society. The city waif is taken
or sent from feelings of compassion, while
the son of the well-to-do townsman is
apprenticed for two Or more years to ena-
BILE him to lead free, open-air life, become
good shot and daring rider, quick and
keen judge of live stock, and to keep him
out of the temptations Of low city life
Again, the younger sons of wealthy, even
of titled parents, are sent off on large
Yorkshire or Scottish lowland farms to fit
them for colonial or American pioneer life,
and it is generally those very apprentices
who, when they do emigrate, become the
largest and most successful stock-owners,
no matter into which land their wandering
steps may lead them. What we would
bring before our readers is this: Boys have
to be educated and carefully trained, rather
than permitted to run up. Too much men,
tai education is as bad as too little. The
happy system which provides for health of
mind and body is the proper one. AS soon
as boy can read and write, and under
stands fair share of accounts and book
keeping, he ought to 60 to the country to
enlarge his mind and to develop his bodily
powers. This being granted, the next step
is to find him a comfortable home, where
he will he able to see successful system Of
farming carried on, where he will not be
overworked, and where every succeeding
season and year will bring with it new pleas
ures and triumphs. The lack of knowledge
in most American farmers minds is deplor-
able. Their want of enterprise is equally
lamentable. They do not seek knowledge;
they do not even appear to desire that the
wise Goddess find them out. Now to us
it seems that any device that would advance
the agricultural interests of this country
must advance the interests of the entire
community. Inefficient and costly labor
now paralyzes the endeavors of the strug-
Cling farmer aud checks the progress of the
wealthy and enterprising. To be compelled
to pay ten or twenty per cent. for unskilled
labor, over and above what ought to be paid
for skilled labor, is the position of the
American farmer to-day. The apprentice
system would gradually do away with this;
it would teach youths who, ever after,
would be able to put this early-acquired
knowledge into practice, and what man, be
for having in his youth been familiar with
comfortable farm lifes In wishing to see
this apprentice system introduced on Amer
lean farms, we would caution farmers from
expecting too much from their apprentices.
A lad of spirit and intelligence will not
bear to be ground down, neither ought he
to submit to unjust demands ON his time or
strength. The proper plan is to give lad
less to do than he can perform without
undue fatigue, then to require that littls to
be we'll and faithfully carried out. 1t is
not good system to allow farm boys to
run from one thing on the farm to another.
By doing so they become Eighty, and never
acquire that skill in any one department
that is sufficient TO insure SUCCESS therein.
To be a valuable herdsman or shepherd
takes years of study. To be a good, first
class farm hand requires a clear, quick
Judgment, coupled with long practice and
an inherent love of rural pursuits. We
are persuaded that higher tone to farm
life could easily be given in this country.
This can be done by inducing better class
of boys to take part in it. The average
American farmer of to-day is poor speci-
men of progressive republican. For him
free schools, stesm-pewsr and the practical
use of electricity are scarcely tangible
things. He has heard of them, but to sell
his stock by means of a telegram has never
once occurred to him. Oh no; cattle deal
ers use the wireA as they want to catch or
forestall market; so do horse jockeys and
thieves, but farmers sleep on and realize
about one-sixteenth of what they ought to
get for their produce, despising progress
and their own profit, and thus the world
goes on and young men are swallowed up
one by one in the vortex of city life, there
to swell the crowd of gamblers, and specu-
lators, and in too many instances, to fill
early and dishonored graves.-N Y. Times.