Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-06-08
Farmers Boys.

The western Homestead.
Technical education, as 1t Is called,
is beginning to attract attention in this
country. as it has done for a long time
in the old world. The supremacy Of
France. Germany and Switzerland in
the manufactures peculiar to those
countries, is largely due to the schools
and other facilities afforded for instruc-
ton in the sciences and arts. The ap-
prentice system was in England the
means principally relied upon for keep
ing up the supply of skilled mechanics,
and in this country the same system
was attempted with poor results. 1t
was not suited to the spirit of our in
stitutions, arbitrary masters were re-
pugnant to the free spirit of the west
ern republic, and this Impotence of
restraint, which has grown stronger
with each succeeding generation, bids
fair to deprive the country Of skilled
artisans, unless some substitute can be
found for the apprentice system.
Skilled mechanics are getting scarcer
every day, and employers being unable
to find the skill desired, are often at
their wits ends for help, and are CON-
PEELED to employ botches, who do their
work In the most unsatisfactory man.
ner.
Technical schools seem to be the only
remedy for this state of things, and
they have already sprung up in several
places at the east. They aim to give
instruction in the practical use of tools
and machinery, and the actual manu-
factuIe of goods is carried on by the
boys, under the supervision of compe-
tent mechanics. Step by step they
master the details, until they acquire
the skill necessary for a competent
journeyman. The graduates have no
trouble in finding situations-the situa.
tons hunt for them.
Now why cannot similar system be
contrived for farmers boysp We mean
boys to make farmers of. There are
plenty of schools where farmers boys
attend, and where they acquire ideas
and habits totally uniting them for
the noblest, safest and healthiest occu-
patton in the world. A system Of farm
schools is wanted, where intelligent
farming can be taught i'll an attractive
manner and at moderate cost. AS it is,
the farmers boy learns nothing except
by the hard and disagr eeable tasks in
the field, and thereby acquires dis
gust for the whole business. He learns
little of the why and the wherefore of
his woI k-he has no time or opportun-
ity for experimnnts-he hears of the
pleasures of city life, or of the great
profits Of mining or speculation-and
at the first opportunity he shakes the
farm dust from his feet and goes out
into the world to seeA his fortune.
In this day and age boys think
they are not content to plod on in the
path their fathers trod, but must know
the reason Of things, and if there is any
easier, pleasanter, or more profitable
way, they want to know it. Good prac-
tical farmers though their fathers may
be, they are not competent to answer
their questions or satisfy their eager
desires for Improvement. The result
is, the boys are lost to the farm.
1t is to be hoped that some form of
primary farm schools will be devised
That shall combine practice with sci
ence, and illustrate the dry details of
botany, chemistry, philosophy and
physiology by cultivation of gardens,
examination of soils and foods, max
ing and using tools, and feeding ami
mails.