Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-06-15
Union AND AMERICAN.
FARM AND GARDEN.
NECESSITY FOR EDUCATED FAR

Under this head writer in the Rural
Nea2 Yorker tells some painful truths. 1t
must be confessed that while in every
country a few hundred men engaged in
agricultural pursuits may be found who are
well informed in regard TO all public mat
RS as well as TO the sciences that specially
concern their business, yet the great ma
jority look with suspicion upon any thing
that sayors Of @book farming" But sup
pose there is nothing in book farming, there
is something in the strength and astuteness
of intellect, and these are largely increased
by judicious reading. Says this writer: ---
"Being one of those farmers sons who
would have bad an education If | could, l
want to say a word upon the education Of
farmers sons generally. 1t Is quite com
mon for them to be spoken Of as verdant,
slovenish, etC.-a6jectiVes which become
doubly cutting when those to whom they
are applied feel them to be true to certain
degree, yet are ignorant Of the way in
which they might improve. The feeling
that this is the inevitable result of life on
the farm, has done much TO make the pro
fessiOn unpopular, and has had no small
influence in sending those who were born
there, and were well fitted to conduct its
business successfully, away to the village
or city, to engage in something that would
at least free them from this fault.
"Why need farmers son, any more than
any other, be an ignoramus or a clown,
even though be cannot get more thana
common school education? Nearly all can
get this; and then the same amount Of ap-
plication that would be necessary to make
it complete under the most favorable Cir
cumstances, would do very much towards
it, even in their homes, in the spare hours
they might find, which are so generally
wasted. Books and papers can be OBJ
tanned at a rate that is, to some extent,
within the reach Of all. Yet it is not
enough TO read simply; it must be with
some definite purpose. There are cords
of books and papers that leave one
worse than they found him, and farm
ers are the very ones who encourage their
production by buying them. The tenden-
CIV toward light reading is so strong as to
produce permanent injury. The country
is flooded with stories. They come in
books, in magazines, and papers, and are
read bv farmers families generally, with
far too little discrimination. The effect is
20 destroy all taste for more solid reading
that requires a stronger effort of the mind,
and imparts more valuable information.
Yet this solid reading that makes thinking
a necessity, must be the groundwork upon
which to build an education, and the light
er kinds should only be used as a recrea-
ton. There is much Of it that should not
be read at all.
sMost of the farmers with whom / am
acquainted are comparatively uneducated,
and from not having its advantages them
selves, fail to appreciate its value to their
children, who are growing up to ill the
places of their parents with very few ideas
beyond the business of the farm. II is this
wilfdl blindness to their own true interests
tn makes so large number Of farmers
incapable of taking higher position in So
Ciety. You must talk to them of farming
or they are not interested. Their minds
narrow down to their own petty interests,
and they wear themselves out to accomplish
what an educated mind would do with ease.
Many of them are not conscious of their
own defects, and are the most difficult TO
get along with in the town or church, be-
cause their minds work perpetually in the
same old rUt.
ssFarmers do not think enough. They
use Their muscles more freely than they do
their intellects, which are, weak for want of
exercise. fthey cannot get this at the right
time and in the usual place under instruc
tors, they ought to have course of read
ing that would produce a similar effect upon
the mind, and fit them not only to form,
but also to express opinions upon those
questions that concern them in common
with others. This would give a new zest 70
liz, aud would fit them to do their own
work better and easier, while as citizens
they would far excel their present reputa
y