Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1886-04-28

OJher IMAM strictly hrst-clasS stock,
and give her and her offsprings good
care, and you will have In your pigs
the most profitable stock on the farm.
Ii, however, you buy anything that is
cheap, and give them little or no care,
you will have another public nuisance
and q private loss. Handle strictly
tirst-class pigs or none, and give them
the best of care.
No Use for Education.
The opinion is too prevalent that
farmer neither needs education nor
preparation for his position in life.
Last week q lawyer in the Iowa Sen
ate, in considering the bill regulating
the salaries of judges, said it would
not do to compare the value Of the
services OF a lawyer with that of a
farmer or stock-raiser. This is the
limited opinion which the professions
generally entertain of the relative
qualifications and intelligence which
the two require to perform their re-
spective duties. They think that if it
requires three Or five years for law
yer or doctor to prepare for their
profession, they are therefore entitled
to three or five times as much for SER
vices as a farmer or mechanic, who
serve faithfully as long, and generally
longer, to qualify themselves for their
business. 1t really requires more
study and application, and a higher
grade of intellect, to prepare a man
for successful farming, than it does for
the limited field of cunning, which the
lawyer or doctor have to investigate.
AS q sample of what contracted
ideas other classes of men have of a
farmer, one of the great political daily
papers of ST. Lie us said lately:
1.-The agricultural colleges of the
country are shams without exception.
They do little or no good and much
harm. IL boy who attends one of
them learns anything it is to despise
the process of the perspiration in the
sun required to make the soil yield
bread. They are robbing the farms
and filling the city with six-dollar a.
week clerks. So long as any state
contributes to their support it is con-
tributing directly to the demoraliza-
ton of the yeoman class in which lies
the chief hope of every state. The
only way to learn to farm is to farm.
One would judge from the foregoing
that the only way to learn to be an
editor, is, to write. It is not longs since
we were talking with the editor of a
leading paper in Iowa, when we urged
the necessity of editors preparing
themselves by a regular system of
reading carefully the standard works
In history, travels, poetry. and e. few
standard novels. He hooted at the
idea. He said he had never read
Rollin, Bancroft, or any other history
except school books, and asfor poetry
and novels he never fooled away his
time with such things. We judge there
is one of that class of editors in ST.
Louis. He evidently thinks that
farmers are that class in the human
race which need no aid from schools
or colleges, not necessary really that
they should be able to read, for fear it
would elevate their thoughts above
the drudge. "The only way to learn
to farm, is to farm" No need of agri-
cultural books, or papers. We wish
that editor had read the history of
what science has done, to aid the
horticulturist in bringing our present
excellent fruits from the native speci-
mems of wild crab apples, plums, etc.
1t would make him a better editor if
he had read a history of the scientific
steps which have been taken to trans
form the original wild COW, sheep and
hog into the noble Shorthorn, Holstein.
ShrOpshires and Poland Chinas. It
would profit such editors if they would
read, even by gaslight, the works of
scientific men on the improvement of
agricultural plants, grains, grasses,
forage plants, vegetables for man and
beast, and the fbrous plants for cloth
ing, etc. He would soon find, if he
would wake up, that farming requires
broader mind and wider research,
and closer application than any other
greet exceedingly that an editor of so
prominent a paper has made such a
ridiculous exposition of his ignorance,
as to write so stupid paragraph. 1t
is probable he too can say he never
cooled his time away with such
things" But we rejoice the intelli-
gence Of the world will rebuke such
silly ideas. "The only way to learn
to farm is to farm" is only equal to
that visionary and impractical re-
mark of Greeley, "the way to resume
specie payment is to resume"
We are free to admit that many of
our agricultural colleges are burlesques
on the name. Too many trustees of
such institutions consider it a good
place to pension old broken down
hacks, and fossilized professors retired
from classical institutions, until they
have no conception of the true inter
ests of the founders. They block the
road to advancement, and blast any
budding prospect of catching thespirit |
OF the age, for the very reason that
too many of them have no higher