Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1872-06-13
Educating Farm Labor.

lidDitS-Ne IcieI 10 OoJcStiohauic oHcc
and prejudices are great foes to progress
either In agriculture or iu other depart
ments of the worlds business, and most
difficult to overcome. 1t has been SO long
the custom to single out the smart boy of
the family for the profession, i. e. the law,
medicine or ministry and to put him for
ward as SO much in advance of the rest of
the family, that it is difficult to comprehend
that those others who stay behind and de-
velop the resources necessary to support
the favored ones pretensions are not to be
considered as inferior beings. John must
go to college, James, William and George
must be content to stay at home and work.
Three months schooling each winter, to
post them In the .'rudiments" is consider
ed ample to fit them for their business.
They are to be farmers, ohn is to study
law He must have finer clothes more
spending money !; books, in quantity high
priced teachers aud special advantages
generally, and this all at the expense of
the other boys. No books for them, no
amusemeut or instruction; hardly news
paper; no intercourse with cultured socle-
ty; nothing to raise them above the druid
gerry of daily labor. Is it strange that
they should .'sour" on farming! Is it
strange that they should seek to braek
the bonds which are so irksome at the first
opportunity? Isthcre anything to encour-
age them to continue in the ruts now worn
SO deep and SO miry? Is it natural that
they should love the work which they have
| performed under compulsion?
No. The first opportunity to engeage
in other employment, it matters but little
what, is eagerly embraced. They Will
drive dray or groom horse, or carry
the hod anything to get off the farm.
! And vet farm life is eulogized and lauded
as the most honorable, the most enjoyable
occupation known to man /; and even SO 1t
NAV be. TO the cultured mind, what can
afford more pleasure tilan to watch the
development of the planted seed, lying
dormant perchanse for years, waiting the
/ fulfiilment of certain conditions necessary
to it's growth yet, when those are sup
pied, bursting its protecting cas- eand start
ing its tiny rootlets down into the earth
and the blade or stem up into the ar,
gathering the clements of growth lmper-
ceptiblv. but not less surely. until In due
/ season it has reproduced its kind perfect
in development. The endless variety OF
Natures productions, of vegetable. animal
and insect life, afford studies ample for the
longest life time, and comprehensive
enough to employ the strongest mind.
No problem in science, no intricacy IN
the law nothing in theology is more dim
cult of comprehension, more worthy OF
tbouqht. than are the causes producing the
effects constantly presented to the tiifer
of the soil.
True. there is muscular labor connected
with the mental and some of it quite Ia
borious. But are not our muscles fur,
n;sbed for use as well as our brains, and
are not both improved by exercise! May,
they not work harmoniously and to mutual
advantage? We answer, most assurediy
they may ~
Instead then, of spending all our sub
stance upon the one number OF the family
rive all an equal chance. Let the boy
syI,n chooses to be farmer comprehend
that the calling is one of as high honor as
i the professional or mercantile life; and
Furnish him the means to improve and
cultivate his mind, as he improves and
o,It;vates his land. When the idea be-
comes thoroughly iiistilled among our
farmers that their occupation is as honor
able as any that boy can be trained to
when they see the necessity and act tot
Of educating the farmer as well as the
nbvs;c;an. then will agriculture advance II
nronortion to other industries, which i
now can scarcely be claimed to do.
Our farm labor must be better educated
The hand that holds the plow, that seater'
the q seed. must be directed by intelligen
tboupht. An ignorant man may dig
living out of the ground: but in doing so
nnless by accident, he robs the soil OF Ter
t;l;tv which a more intelligent cours
{ would compensate.