The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1877-09-27
Brain and Land.

Our ideal of good farmer is ro-
bust, firm, sensible mana man with
solid bones and solid brains-a semi
creator-wielding the laws of God by di-
rect privilege and authority, and causing
the earth to yield the stores from which
the Nations are fed and clothed. Such
being has destiny. Whatever he may
have been in the past, he is rising now
ALI along in the time gone by it has been
thought enough that the farmer should
know how 10 grow crops and animals.
The State made few acquisitions from
his ranks; science none; literature none.
The boy bred on the farm who obtained
an education straightway sought the law,
medicine or mercantile pursuits. The
idea seems to be that land and brain are
Ompatible-that if man has land he
does not want large, active brain force,
and that if he has a good development
OF brain he does not want land. Conse-
quently if boy takes to getting land he
abandons the efforts to enlarge his brain.
So the farmer has gone on making the
acquisition OF land and the management
OF the varied operations connected with
Ii his chief employment, his chief object
and purpose. So, too, he has made him.
self mere worker-a machine to keep
things moving.
We are not among those who oppose the
acquisition of property. The love of
money is not the root of all evil; it is the
basis OF all great enterprises which have
blessed mankind, when directed by
knowledge and skill. After brains then
land-after knowledge is gained then let
us apply ourselves to getting property.
There is time given us to acquire both.
What is rich man without brain force
A mere gilded post-a John Jacob Astor
with no merit save his industry.
Thought and invention would die out if all
men were mere money getters. We are
DESTROYS that farmers sons should be high
ly educated--that their minds should be
trained and vigorously active. 1t is a
serious loss to society whenever boy with
a strong physical frame has little or no
development of brain, and grows to be a
man lacking the main thing-mental force
Farmers sons are as 1ule healthy, and
if educated thoroughly would make the
strongest and most influential Of all
men, because they have the constitution
al vigor to back up and sustain mental
operations. A well cultivated brain in a
sound body makes a useful citizen. These
are truths about which there is no dispute.
Let young farmers and farmers who have
sons fast growing toward manhood think
upon them and the important issues to
which they lead. To raise the character
of the farmer, to better his social condi-
ton, to give him influence and power in
the State and Nation, he must be tfor-
oughly educated. We have grand schools
and colleges, and education is had for the
asking. Keep the boys in school, encouf-
age them to become educated farmers, and
thus honor their great profession. One
more idea and we close: Farming is said
to slow way of getting property. Is it
because farmers lack brain-forceg Look
into other professions and see who are
most successful in this respect. Are they
the ignorant or those most thoroughly
learneda A learned farmer who makes a
wise use of his knowledge. has an un-
questioned advantage over the unlearned
in the race, of property getting as we'll as
in all the conventionalities of society
Detroit Tribune.