The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1882-07-01


EDUCATION For FARMERs.-To the
average mind the word education is
limited in its definition to what one
learns at school, but that is altogether
too narrow. Education means
growth, culture, development, as we'll
as the acquisition of knowledge, and
knowledge again is not monopolized
by the schools; indeed one who knows
only what he learns at school is much
more justly entitled to the epithet of
ignoramus than he who, having no
opportunity to attend school, has
been diligent student of nature
and of men. There were wise men
before letters were inyented.or schools
established. Schools, good schools,
are excellent auxiiaries TO education,
but they are nothing more. 1t is
admitted by all that no amount of
book learning will suffice to fit q
young man for the duties of phys
ician, a lawyer, or q clergyman, and
the idea that it would fit him for the
profession of agriculture is absurd.
Yet each profession has its literature,
which can be reached only through
the portal Of the school or the aid of
private instructors, and the literature
of each profession is of prime impor-
lance to those who would pursue sue
cessfully profession.
The literature of a profession,
farming, for example, conserves the
wisdom of the past and records the
experiments of the present. But the
wisdom of the past preserved in
books is like wheat before it is win
moved, mixed with the chaff of ig-
norance and the cheat of prejudice.
So, also, is much of the scientific
knowledge of the present. They are
both misleading and injurious to
him who accepts them without ques-
ton. But they are great helps to
him whose mind has been trained to
criticise all things, and who accepts
only that which stands this crucial
test.
Colleges confer degrees, yet these
are often misleading; the young man
with A. NJ. or NJ. d. after his name
is not necessarily a master of arts
or of medicine He is only prepared
to enter upon career of practical
experiment, which, if he possesses
the talent, the industry and the per-
severance necessary to the compile
ton of his education, may ultimately
make him worthy of the title con
ferred upon him prematurely by the
school.
No amount of theoretical training
will fit man for the successful pur-
suit of agriculture; yet, without theo-
retical training, a man rarely rises
to the dignity of an intelligent
farmer.
Farming is profession in the
same sense that the practice of law
or of medicine is profession; hence
the youth who is destined to become
a farmer should be educated with
reference to that profession. The
public schools of this country fur
nish the facilities for all the literary
training absolutely needed, and, in
the larger cities, the scientific
branches are taught as we'll as they
are in our colleges, and these are i'm
portant. While it were a waste of
time to study the dead languages,
the prospective farmer should be-
come familiar with the elements of
natural history, botany, chemistry,
geology, and natural philosophy.
These branches of science have
direct relationship to his future bust
ness, and the young farmer who en-
tiers the profession versed in them
will find that he is not only prepared
for a larger measure Of success, but
that his mind is fitted for commu-
MON with nature, whose secrets, hid
from others, are constantly revealed
to him, affording an inexhaustible
source of pleasure as we'll as profit.
10 him every expanding leaf or
opening flower has beautiful sig
nificance, and every phenomenon in
volved in the growth of plants has
for him a meaning unknown to the
ignorant plodder All nature is to
him one grand illustrated encyclo-
pedia filled with lessons of wisdom,
from the pen and pencil of the origi-
nal author and artist of the universe.
To the educated farmer the rocks
present their own history, written in
unmistakeable characters by the
finger of God. The soil whispers to
him of it's fertility or complains to
him of its poverty in language per-
fectly Ineligible, and the treasures
of Flora, Ramona and Ceres, are
shown, in rich abundance, at the
feet of him who yields the magic
wand of intelligent labor.
T..