Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1877-05-11


vate study and above ALL do they stimulate
such taste for knowledge as to make that
pupil student both Of nature and Of books
through all his after life To this question
there can be but one auswer---an answer in
the negative. 1t is because they have not
done this that our agriculture is in the back
ward condition we all know it to be-. 1t is
because they have not done it that l3S farm.
ers in our legislature can be brought ses-
sion after session, by few lobbyists and
cunning politicians, to white-wash and en-.
dorse the management Of so-oalled agri-
cultural college which, without a single
teacher of any branch Of agriculture, aud
without an agricultural pupil in the whole
ten years Of its corporate existence, has yet
10 that time drawn nearly ninety thous-
and dollars. of the public money, aud Is still
drawing it at the rate Of over $4,000 year.
say that if our common schools had been
what they ought to be, and what we can
make them if we desire to do so, mono oil the
wrongs Of which this is sample could be
perpetrated upon the farmer.
The next question is-Why do our CON-
mon schools thus fail in their work? My
answer is, only and solely from the want of
good teachers, intelligent methods, suitable
buildings and the proper apparatus for in.
struction. The great majority Of our district
schools to-day are as far from being means
Of genuine, effective instruction, as our dairies
turning out two aud three tubs per COW Of
second and third rate-butter are proper rep
resentatievs Of first class dairy husbandry.
As it is impossible to turn out large make
of gilt edged butter from a dairy of scrub
cows, poorly fed, poorly sheltered, roughly
handled, flthily MIXED, the milk and cream
kept in room to which tobacco smoke and
the odors of the kitchen have free access, and
the whole process Of manufacturing in the
hands of careless, dirty and incompetent
person. So it is impossible to turn out good
scholars from school houses lacking in every
element of comfort, convenience and health,
or from schools taught by young men and
women who have never been properly taught
themselves, who have no real interest 10 any.
thing but their pay, and who are changed
every few months for others no better.
The third and last question is, How can
l.. l. =. Il.
Of the children of our farms, SO that the
next generation of farmers shall have all the
knowledge requisite to make them masters
of their business and masters Of their
public servants2 In the first place
we must have good school houses. l do
not mean, necessarily, that we must have
costly school houses. do mean that we
must have school houses that are comforta-
bly, cool in summer aud comfortably warm
in the winter with whole and tight windows,
and with doors so situated and prote cted that
they will not throw draft Of icy air across
the persons Of number of children perhaps
delicate or thinly clad. A large proportion
Of our school houses seem to have been plan.
ned by King Herod, for the slaughter Of the
innocents; and that parents will send their
ofsprings into these slaughter pens is sad
commentary upon our civilization and ouI
christianity. Often have | visited schools
in winter, where the chorus of coughing al
most prevented the possibility of proceeding
with the exercises Of the classes. Here the
seeds of disease and early death, rather thar
the seeds of knowledge and future usefulness
are sown. Cold feet and burning heads ut
tcrly unfit even grown persons for any sor
of intellectual labor Yet that is th,
condition Of more than half the scholars in tn,
schools of Vermont this very day. How car
they learn, even if they we're well taught b.
the best of teachers? But you cannot hire any
man or women who knows enough to teach
or even to protect their own lives, to teacl
in such buildings.
We have Superintendent Of Education
in this state. know him, and he is al
able man. l say to him that the very frs
work for him to do, and the essential preim
mary to any other improvements in our sys
TEN Of education, is to teach our people hoV
to build school houses. Let him have draw
and printed series of plans for schoc
houses Of all grades, from the little distric
schools for ten to twenty scholars, up to tn
large graded schools of our village districts
Let there be embodied in these plans tn
latest improvements in heating, lighting an
ventilation. Let US begin by having de
cent and healthy school house first. l sa
decent with a very particular meaning fo
aside from the provisions for destroying th
health of our teachers and children, we o
ten seem to design the fittings of our scho,
: houses purposely to deaden the sense {
| shame, and undermine the perceptions
morality aud decency.
Having secured the bodily comfort an
health and physical morality Of our chi
dren by properly constructed schoC
{ building, the next thing is to have it sui
B ably equipped with the implements of teacI
ing. We buy improved mowers, rakes and to-
| ders, patent milk pans and churns, but we rar
f ly think of fitting up our district schools wi
J, the improved implements of education.
4 blackboard is about as far as we general
D go, and there are a good many public schO
y rooms in Vermont without even that. VIII
'f would one of our old fOgies with five hu
n dred dollars worth of patent farm machin
a around his buildings, say to raising distri
IT tax of 5000 to purchase globes, maps, mo
II els Of the mechanical powers, a magnifyil
d glass or q cheap microscope, and a cabin