Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1877-11-14


The Uses OF Manual Labor In Indus
trial Schools.
1t appears TO us, after long study of the
subject, and the consideration of every ar
gument pro and con, in regard to the con-
junction of manual labor with study in the
training of youth for industrial occupations,
that one of the most important points in re-
lation to the matter has been overlooked.
A recent article upon the subject in the
Scientific Farmer, by DIR. Sturtevant, says,
speaking of agricultural colleges, that " it is
the province of the college to educate the
man so far above the laborer, that his time
shall be worth more to him to direct the la
borer, than the laborer's time is to him, i'll
earning his daily wages. How can this be
done is a pertinent query 1tcertainly can
not be the best done by undertaking study
and reflection, aud lauding manual labor on
the college farm to the skies. The young
man is not at college to work his hands, so
much as to work his brains, and acquire the
power of making himself the superior of
dozens, or scores, or hundreds of common
men, in the bringing out of results The
labor training is of little Importance in the
college curriculum, in the way of training
up aborers. 1t is only of Importance in its
connection with the training up of thinkers.
1t is a valuable portion of the college re-
sources for illustration, and the conveying
of information, and perhaps as incidentally
to encourage exercise and industry, and in
the aiding of students of limited means to
earn their board or tuition outside of these
purposes, the manual labor department of
our colleges is an injury"
Certainly, with this view of the subject,
one would have little regret at seeing manual
labor dropped altogether in such schools
But this is not the theory under which in
stitutions like West Point, for instance, are
so successfully worked. There the youth in
training for military command is taught the
entire duty of the private soldier, and is dis
ciplined in it until he is, or ought to be, su-
perior in all the manual work of the soldier
to any one likely to be under him in service.
And in our judgment this is equally essen
tia to the superior and entirely successful
management of farm. 1t is true that a
man, if he is very superior man, like DR..
Sturtevant, may conduct a farm with con-
siderable success without this practical
knowledge But it is very difficult to main
tain discipline, and secure efficient service
from subordnates who know that their EN-
ployer could not for his life hitch up a
plow-team correctly, or draw straight fur
row, or milk COW, or swing an axe, or a
scythe, or cradle, or bind a wheat sheaf.
The alacrity of service under " boss who
is master OF his business is very different
from the sojering " of ordinary farm help
in the employ of gentlemen of purely lit
erary culture.
But this is not that important point to
which we alluded in the beginning. What
we there referred to is well illustrated by the
following extract from an article in the No
vember number of Scribner'S Monthly, by
Colonel Waring, upon " The Saddle Horse. "
Speaking of the Arabian horses, he says
" 1t is the custom of the desert to inure the
horse to regular work from very early age.
Even yearlings are ridden several miles by
young boys, and after the eighteenth month
are occasionally subject to real fatigue. 1t
is believed that should not the habit of work
be formed before the horse is four years old
he will be almost worthless This was the
opinion of the celebrated Abd-el-Kader, who
had seen upwards of ten thousand colts
reared. He afiirms that he had made long
and rapid marches at the head of twelve or
fifteen thousand horsemen, not a single horse
that had been early Injured to fatigue having
fallen out of the ranks"
The laws of physical health and strength
are the same for men as for animals. The
great majority of those to be educated in in.
dustrial schools expect to, and must, earn
their bread by the sweat of their brows and
the toll of their backs. Take Il boy from
the farm at twelve and keep him in school
until twenty without any constant and sys
tematic training in the kind of labor he is
to practice in after life, and you absolutely
and forever unfit him, physically, for the
employment you are endeavoring to train
him for intellectually. He finds himself
on leaving college, in the condition of the
prodigal, who could not dig" He is com
pletely " educated away from the farm =
as completely in an agricultural school as
in any other.
The solidfying of the bones, the tougher
ing of the tendons, and the development o.
the muscles for hard bodily work must b.
effected in youth, or you cannot make
working man. He may have the courage t,
20 at it, but the suffering entaled upon hin
by the lack of that essential preliminar,
training of the body will force him to :" fal
out as surely as the unframed horses fell GU
from Aod-el.Kader's cavalry on their won
derful raids against the French in Algeria.
Professor Beal, of the Michigan Agrlcul
tural College, publishes an admirable &C
count of that institution in recent issue o
Lilt tWut ANtW fWhtI, lEOul WHICH WE LAX
the following
In an address 10 the students the president O
the college said; The college is yours, and in tn
main You are proud of it. We all turn with prId
from the early photographs which exhibit stump
aud rail fences about the very doors Of the coeg
md boardng-hal to the beautiful expanse of tn
college park, and the level, well-shaped, eve
fields OF our farm, and say; "'rhis is student,
work" Other colleges show libraries, picture,
indoor cabinets of specimens To their visitors W
show roads, fences, stock, fields, crops, plant,
shrubs, barns, chemical analyses greenhouse,
records Of observations. And we exhibit them t
numbers far greater than visit other colleges 'rh
graduate OF a few years ago returning is glad q
heart to see improvements everywhere. lie love
the spot where he studied 50 long lie remember
with some pride that he helped To lay out thu
field, build this wall, to drain this spot and cea
that lot.
The questions are often asked, DO the ST.
tents work well? is the labor system a success
1t has been tried in many different schools
different countries, and all who have ever Ia
anything TO do with 1t admit that it Is the mo-