The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1874-05-08
Farming for Bows.

! 1t is all very well Tor young boys
to go to school to get an education,
and to Sundy School and other good
places to have a good moral and in
tellectual foundation laid No one
can we'll dispense with these agen-
cies in laying the foundation in q
child of a good, substantial, useful
character. 1t is not necessary to
say anything about this in these
days. The idea is very well appre-
ciated. But IL does not seem so well
understood that habits Of industry,
early established, are among the very
best elements in finishing up a young
boy. At any rate it is quite COM
mon to see the intellectual and the
moral very well cared for, while the
industrial is generally utterly neg
lected.
We do not know on . farm that
any better thing could be inaugur-
ated to help the boys along in this
respect than the keeping of rabbits.
1t was the first, or nearly the first,
lesson in farming of a practical char
acter which the writer received, and
it was given him st eight years old.
It was an absolute necessity that
they should be fed three times s
day, and this daily work to be done,
which could not be avoided, was q
capital drilling in that round Of du
ties which ends in making q good
soldier for the great battle Of life.
We have known some who have
encouraged the children TO go into
these rabbit enterprises, but who
had not nerve enough to urge them
to a perseverance in their daily du-
ties, and the result was that, as the
season progressed, the rabbits were
suffered to run at large, so that they
could get their own food and take
care Of themselves. This, however,
should never be permitted. It is no
worse to keep q child up to task in
industry than in any other good
work; and after once getting him in
the run there is no difficulty after.
A good roomy box should be pro-
yided for them, and it should be
timed in various places, or the rab-
bits will invariably gnaw their way
out. The bars in front should be Of
wire, and rather close together ia
order to keep out rats. A little
yard is a very good thing, if the bot
tom can be so fOored as to prevent
them from burrowing to getout. 1t
should always be made Saturdays
Job to clean out the boxes.
For boys it is not only an excel
lent industrial exercise, but rabbit
keeping, when well done, is a source
of income by no means to be de-
spised. From our early experience
we can tell the boys positively that
there is money in it. There were
about six litters q year from the old
one, and, after death and accidents
we're deducted, there were about two
dozen grew up, on which the money
was made. Generally some one was
d
found 70 buy the young at six weeks
old; bus, if not, the provision stores
took them all at six months. And
and all this for only the daily toll Of
gathering clover or cabbage leaves
in the summer, or turnips or other
similar material in winter.
Besides the rabbit business, there
are many little things which the
young can thus be set to do, both in
the garden and the farm. It mat
ters not what, so that it is some
thing they must do every day, and
something which will bring them in
some money reward for the work
they do.-Forney's Weekly Press.