Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1875-10-29
Why Farmer Sons are not Educated for
Farming.

In these days Of progress in the cause Of
education, when young men can obtain a
general or special training to Ct them for
any profession or business; when special
facilities are afforded for instruction in those
branches Of learning which are especially
uoedful for intelligent farming; when the
school system is being so greatly improved,
there is still scarcely perceptible improve
ment in the education Of the mass Of the
farmers of the country over that Of 6Ay
years ago.
The necessity for better education of
farmers, and the practical value of intellec-
tual training as help to making money on
the farm, are recognized by the best farmers
Of the land. The need Of better mental
traiaiug aud culture for the higher develop
ment Of the man, and the more perfect enjoy
ment Of the blessings Of life is evident. But
farmers are slow to admit these truths, and
reluctant to give their sons the time and the
money necessary for getting such an educa-
ton as will enable them to master the busi-
ness Of farming. The pecuniary considera-
ton weighs heavily in the scale against
education. Many who admit the value and
Importance Of education, even for farmers,
cannot bear to pay for it for their sons.
They put IL of to future day--a more
favorable season not intending to put it
Of forever. But that is the usual result.
The chief obstacles which hinder the gen.
eral acceptance of the educational facilities
afforded by the progressive spirit of the
times for the advancement of farmers in the
scale Of intelligence and culture are apathy
and Indifference. The claims Of business
and money making, pleasure and amuse.
ments, all necessary, proper and healthful
when controlled by reason, occupy the whole
thought Of the people to the exclusion oI
equally important matters, the systematic
prosecution of such studies and such reading
as give not only useful fund Of genera
information but a special fitness for somC
pursuit. An illustration of this tendency
was mentioned recently in n complaint
Of the Hartford Courant that the city
Of Hartford, one Of the richest anC
healthiest cities in the country, with library
and reading room containing 10000 volumes
and periodicals, can only show 406 persons
out Of its population ol 10000 or $4,000
who will pay five dollars year for its priv
leges; and that the library is losing $500 I
year, while ball game of two hours, th
other day, drew from the pockets Of tn,
citizens between 81, 900 and $4,000.
When it can be truly said Of people tina
only one in hundred make any use of 1
fine public library, and that they will pay fou
hundred times as much for an hours amuse
msnt as for the use Of such library for Who'll
year, that people is in bad way. Materia
interests and transient pleasures usurp intel
ectual culture and development, and how
ever perfect the common school, the academy
and the college, such people will eventual
suffer a decline in all the best attributes O
humanity.
Every boy intended for farmer canno
take full course ut an agricultural collegc
to be sure, but they all can be so directed i
their studies in the common school, an
encouraged by precept and example, tina
they will realize that even in agricultur
there is something to excite ambition.