The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1881-09-22

COMMON SENSE.

Ina 20ttOT VI tb0
gives prominence to the above words
and be says he means by them ones
ability to apply knowledge to the
everyday business of life The man
who knows most is not always the
most successful in business to which
the knowledge pertain. To know
what to do with our knowledge is
the key that unlocks the gate to sue
cess 10 every business. The present
most appar emit defect in our system
of education is the lack Of profess
sor of common sense. We know no
school, college or university which
has supplied itself with this indls-
penssble func,ionary. The young
woman or man, in an educational
course of ten years, more or less, ac-
cumnlates a vast store of knowledge;
but when graduation day ends stu'
dent life, and the everyday working
clothes ere put Oh, the knowledge,
laboriously obtained in school, is too
often a mass OF worthless lumber,
from knowing what to do with it.
And even the mental development
acquired 10 accommodating this store
of knowledge often falls into decay
because the student does not perceive
the relations between the problems
of language and mathematics, and
those Of the farm, the workshop, the
counting house and the broad fields
of domestic economy.
To know how to use our knowl>
edge in all the activity of life is the
special demand of this age. We
have made the field of human knowl'
edge exceedingly broad and the av-
enues to its attainment free and com
paratively easy but what shall we
do with it =? is the present question (;
and in no business or profession is
this question more important than
in farming. The day of routine
farming is past. The farmer who
will succeed must know, not only
everything he is required to do on
the farm, but why it should be done
Knowing this he is able to vary his
processes on the farm to suit the
circumstances. An example or two
will illustrate our meaning. The
boy has learned in school that, by
the law of capillary attraction, por>
GUS bodies absorb liquids and gasses
readily but what has that to do
with raising corn and potatoes
Much, every way, if the farmer
knows this law underIies all bis
blowing and cultivation. 1t is not
enough that farmer plows hia fields
deeply and well. The man who
farms with common sense knows
why be plows and cultivates. lie
intends to make his ground good
absorbent that he may catch the
ammonia, carbonic acid and watery
vapor that are floating in the all
and use them for the use of his crops
For this purpose he makes soil fine
porous mass, whether this is accom-
plished by being plowed once, or by
a patient use of the pillow, roller, cloc
crusher or harrow. His labor is the
application of a principle, and ii
limited by the attainment of GER
tain end. This corn field he may
pillow or cultivate twice, that one
five times His aim is to secure
and maintain a certain condition Of
the soil, and his work is measured
only by the end to DO gained. His
rule Of farming is common sense.
Take another example: Miss
Minnie learned in the class that al,
bumen dissolved 10 warm water, but
is hardened and rendered insoluble
in boiling water. She has learned
also that the most nutritious part of
meat is its albumen, and yet she puts
the meat for dinner into cold water,
slowly brings it to boil, dissolving
all the albumen and thus losing it ;
not because she did not know, but
because she did not use her knowl-
edge.