The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1882-06-24
BY T. A. BLAND.

Education for Farmers.
BY T. A. BLAND.
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, cul-
ture, development, as we'll as
the acquisition of knowledge, and
knowledge again is not monopos
lized 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 at
tend school, has been a diligent
student of nature and of men.
There were wise men before letters
were invented, or schools establish
ed. Schools, good schools, are ex-
cellent auxiliaries to education, but
they are nothing more. 1t is adj
mitted by all that no amount of
book learning will suffice to fit a
young man for the duties of physi-
clan, lawyer, or clergyman, and
the idea that it would fit him for
the profession of agriculture is alb
surd. Yet each profession has its
literature, which can be reached
only through the portal of the
school or the aid of private instruct
ors, and the literature of each pro-
fession is of prime importance to
those who would pursue success
fully a profession.
The literature of a profession,
farming for example, concerves 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
winrowed, mixed with the chaff of
ignorance and the cheat of preju-
dice. SO, also, is much of the scien-
tific knowledge of the present.
They are both misleading and in
furious to him who accepts them
without question. 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 master of
arts or medicine. He is only pre-
pared to enter upon a career of
practical experiment, which, if he
possesses the talent, the industry,
and the perseverance necessary to
the completion of his education,
may ultimately make him worthy
of the title conferred upon him
prematurely by the school.
No amount of theoretical training
will fit man for the successful
pursuit of agriculture; yet, without
theoretical training, a man rarely
rises to the dignity of an intelligent
farmer.
Farming is a profession in the
same sense that the practice of law
or of medicine is a profession;
hence the youth who is destined
to become a farmer should be edu-
Gated with reference to that Pr
fession. The public schools of this
country furnish the facilities for all
the literary training absolutely
needed, and, in the larger cities, the
scientific branches are taught as
well as they are in our colleges, and
these are important. While it
were a waste of time to study the
dead languages, the prospective far
mer should become familiar with the
elements of natural history, botany,
chimistry, geology, and natural
philosophy. These branches of
science have a direct relationship
to his future business, and the
young farmer who enters the pro-
fession versed in them will find
that he is not only prepared for
larger measure of success, but that
his mind is fitted for communion
with nature, whose secrets hid from
others are constantly revealed to
him, affording an a ,inexhaustihle
source of pleasure as well as profit.
To him every expanding leaf or
opening flower has beautiful sig-
nificance, and every phenomenon
involved in the growth of plants
has for him a meaning unknown to
the ignorant plodder. All nature
is to him one grand illustrated en-
cyclopedia filed with lessons of
wisdom, from the pen and pencil of
the original Author and Artist of
the universe.
To the educated farmer the rocks
present their own history, written
in unmistakable characters by the
finger of God. The soil whispers
to him of its fertility or complains
of its poverty in language perfectly
ineligible, and the treasures OF
Flora, Pomona and Ceres, are
shown, in rich abundance at the
feet of him who wields the magic
| wand Of intelligent labor.