River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1877-01-04
Farmers Need.

That there is a need of more and
better education among farmers none
can more fully deplore than the farmer
himself. But it is fact that there is
greater need of more education among
farmers than among other classes of
working people, proportionally, or even
among the professions +? viii they not
compare favoTably, as well informed
and good citizens, with any other class!
That they are otherwise, and that any
such institution or reflection, should
be cast at their doo-, as class, the
writer as one of them would most in
dignantly resent. Taken as whole
what other class are better informed,
generally, or better understand practi-
cally, business Perhaps they may be
less learned in laboratory science than
some exceptional cases among scien-
lists ; but when we come to the real
practical, there is very much less want
ing. Put the theorist in the same
place as the practical farmer, with only
the same pecuniary means, and the
same demands upon him, with only
his resources to fall back and which
of the two will add the most to the
doIIars-and- cents wealth of the neigh
borhood and country, in a given time,
say five or ten years And what other
trade, profession or pursuit is so gen
orally successful, IN self-surport, as
the farmers!
Comparatively there are very few
American farmers that are not CON-
PEELED to be architects of their own
fortunes; and very few attain such
wealth as to raise a large family and
classically educate them, and further
endow them with sufficient means to
send them off at the same speed the
elder ends with.
The American system is more a de-
mocracy than an aristOcracy of wealth;
the accumulated wealth of the parent
being equally divided among his child
rem instead of entailment to the eldest
son so that practically. in alarge fam
ily the youngest is better started than
those older.
Farming under such circumstances
becomes a matter of "bread and but
ter or rather, how to get it, in a ma
iority of instances little time can be
spent in obtaining anything more than
the rudiments of an education, sufii-
Gent for everyday life and use inprac-
tice; the practice perfects theory or
knowledge primarily obtained from
books, or otherwise. As a general
rule practical farmers understand
what is necessary in order to retain or
increase the fertility of their soil the
fault does not lie in that direction gen.
orally, but rather in their necessities
and limited resources.
Men and women brought up and ed
ucated with everything ready-made at
hand, little comprehend what trials,
&C., the great majority are obliged to
undergo in order to live respectfully
within their means.
Let us recall what many now on the
stage have experienced, or know from
observation, &C., in attaining to their
present positions, and we must recol-
lect that the advantages of obtaining
education and property, to-day are far
superior to those enjoyed by our IA
theirs ant hose before them in this
country, and also that we are constant
ly improving-it may not be as fully
as we might, but improving still.
The average farmer, as we remem-
her him, raised large family OF sons
and daughters, with more or less sick
ness, generally more, in the family !;
his means were all invested in farm
and home for self and family; what
ever income he might have was deriy-
ed from the products and sales from
the farm, with, perhaps, little from
DAYS work out, at from forty-two
cents, to four shillings per day, more