The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1880-10-09
Number "a.
school, or the Farm9

This is the time OF the year when the
minds of ambitious boys naturally turn to
school and studies. Shall / permit my
boy to go to school now, just as he is get
ting old enough to help me? is question
that comes home to many fathers. This
question should present itself in a nobler
shape, howeverCan / help my boy to
become a broader, more intelligent, more
successful man by giving him more educa-
ton? The true father is always ready to
deny himself if by so doing he can elevate
his children
We some times hear farmers remark,
81 am going to make farmers of my boys.
and so they do not need much education
1t may, or it may not, be wise for man TO
'make" farmers of his sons; but even if it
is, the conclusion that they do not need
education is unwarrantable. The man
who takes his son from school at the age
of fifteen and makes a farm boy of him
stops his mental growth at once. He can
not learn much that enlarges his mind
while plodding in the humdrum work of
the farm. He may attempt to study some
for time, but if he be an obedent boy he
he will soon give it up in despair. If he
continues there till he is twenty one his
habits will become fixed and he will have
lost his ambition; his intellectual growth
will be stunted; he will never be the man
that he might have been could his mind
have received its full share of culture.
The man, on the other hand, who gives
his son the advantages of the best instruc-
ton possible during this period of his life
throws every door open to him. He is
not fitting him to fill one place only, but
he is laying for him foundation that will
make it possible for him to fill any posi-
position that opportunity may offer. 1t
there is one occupation for which he is
especially adapted he will be quite likely
to find it. If the boy who is confined on
the farm, however, does not possess the
faculties TO make successful farmer, the
fact may not appear until it is too late TO
him to change his business. The man
who requires his son to become farmer
takes upon himself a grave responsibility,
for he may make a failure of it, while he
might have been successful in some other
calling.
But it may be urged that education is
often damage to a young man, because
it units him to fill the ordinary occupa-
tions of life. 1t is not the education that
units him for the life of farmer or me-
chanic If anything, it is the influence of
certain false ideas that he assimilates while p
at school. 1t can not be denied that there
is an atmosphere of aristocracy in many
of our bigh schools that is to be deplored.
The student at graduation feels too often
that only the learned professions are wor-
thy of his talents and culture, and that the
common occupations that are more noble,
because more usefnl, are beneath his no
tice. No idea can be entertained that is
more fallacieus than this. The demand OF
the age is not for more doctors and law
yers, but for more educated, intelligent
farmers and mechanics. Not only are
such ones most needed, but they arc the
ones lHdI pOSSCsS liiC iiNSN
for success. The farmer who understands
the science of chemistry, geology, mechan-
ics and hydraulic, has decided advanta-
ges over one that is ignorant OF them.
If. besides this knowledge, he is toler-
ably we'll informed on subjects of history
and political economy, and is reason
ably fluent writer and speaker, he has the
qualifications that may one day make 1t
possible for him to serve his fellow-men IN
a higher place than on his farnl- Iae
Young carpenter, and machinist too, II IN
addition 10 their handicraft have mastered
the sciences that underlie their trade, and
can plan and draw, as well as shape, are
fitted at once to be Some masters in their
places. There is one principle that all
our teachers should endeavor to annihilate
in the minds of the young, viz, that an
educated man is not out of place in any
respectable position in life, however hum
bl. the work may be. 1t is not disgrace,
but an honor, to a young man to return
from college and go to work on his
fathers farm. His education will give
him no advantage over others if ne en-
ters a law office; but on the farm he. is
at once recognized as superior by all
with whom he labors.-Eln, in Husband