Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1872-11-22

that is required IN this direction. But this
is not so. The very class of young men who
leave the farm to engage in some professional
calling is the class that must bring about the
desired results If this class could be re-
tained aud the thousands of idlers, iops and
vagabond youths, who traverse the streets Of
our large towns and cities, could be scattered
throughout the rural portion of the country,
aud taught some useful labor, how different
would be the condition of the country. 1t
is Il mistaken notion, also, that there is not
land enough for all these to cultivate. There
is land enough in the United States to fur
nish occupation for millions more than are
now engaged in tilliug it, and enough if prop
ery cultivated to produce sufficient suste-
nance for all the inhabitants of thickly
settled continent.
Now as Uncle Sam has land enough to
give every one farm, why are so many
farmers sons averse to farming2 There are
doubtless many causes for this disreish Of
farm pursuits, but the chief reason, methinks,
lies in the fact that farming as usually con-
Quoted does not give exercise enough to the
higher intellectual faculties, and that par
cnts do not take sufficient care to make home
pleasant.
There are, perhaps, few farmers boys,
like other boys, who are dlsinclined to apply
themselves to any useful labor, but the great
er part of them would, if the pursuit for
which they were most fitted was pointed out
to them. Some farmers sons after becoming
of age, go away to the large cities, and there,
unrestrained by home influence, or by the
effects Of proper intellectual and moral dis
cipline in early life, plunge into a course of
idleness. proAigacy and dissipation, and ex-
tnguish in miserable graves the fires Of what
might have been useful lives. These per-
sons were probably possessed of a curiosity
to know Of things which did not disturb the
monotOnous current of their thoughts IN youth,
and had these desires been cherished and
directed to the proper objects in early life,
they would have caused their possessors to
have become respectable members Of society.
There are some farmers sons, however,
who seem to have been born farmers. They
are perfectly contented to till the soil, raise
stock, &c, in the same manner as their an
cestors, without troubling their minds to any
great extent with other Thoughts than those
pertaining to their daily labors. This is
very well, and just as wasintended by the Civ
er of all good; but all are not of this stamp,
for many farmers boys should never have
been farm boys at all, though they happened
to have been born upon the farm. Never
theless, all are treated about alike, and the
physical and intellectual pcculiarities Of each
are seldom taken into consideration. The
strong, rough nature, the delcately organized
sensitive one, and the one with craving
hunger for intellectual and scientific knowl-
edge, are all kept together upon the farm
that they may grow up and be taught to la
Dor out Of the way Of temptation.
The usual expectation is that, when the
pecuuiary ends Of the farmer are accomplish.
ed, or the boys have grown out of his hands,
they will accept portion Of so many acres
each, and settle down to plod through the
same routine with the next generation.
Much seeming wisdom and parental affection
are thus manifested; but the wisdom often
proves unwise, and the affection only mis-.
taken form Of well.developed selGshness
The possibility is that, out Of family Of
four or five, one may fulfill the desires of
anxious parents, accept the acres, and, with
the homestead in prospect, settle down to be
the stay OF their old age. The greater prob
ability is however, that as soon as legally
free, Nature will assert her claims in each,
and they will 60 out into the world, seeking
for the life that should have been theirs
through early years Of preparation for it !;
but, having been cheated of this preparation,
neither TIE world nor parents need wonder
if they come forth ill.developed, discontented
spirits, seeking their places and finding them
not.
As farming has usually been considered
a business that any ignoramus might engage
in successfully, it has not been thought nec-
essary to Tighten or brighten the labors of
the farm by any rays Of science or CLEANS of
intelligence from the world Of thought and
action without. Boys on the farm, as well
as in college, have future before them. and
should be educated with reference to the
place in that future which their inherent ca
pacities entitle them to fill. Parents who
do not act upon this principle, will find their
farm improvements paid for at dear rate,
aud need not wonder to find themselves de-
serted and left to a lonely old age
The class of farmers now coming upon the
stage, are beginning to learn that they must
advance with tho times, aud that they must
admit science and intellect into their fields
and barnyards where they want their boys to
work, or the boys will soon grow restless,
aud long for the time when they can go forth
into the world; and they will go, as genera
tions past have found to their sorrow, unless
employment is given at home to the brains az
well as to the muscles. Formerly it was
scarcely thought necessary for farmers to
have brains at all, as any one with ordinary
sense and two stout hands could work, 1t
all did very well, perhaps, IN the nice, quiet
old times, when one generation trudged on
after another, oblivous of the existence of ele-
ments in water, earth and air, that were
waiting but for the electric touch Of science