Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1886-01-07
THE FARM AND THE SCHOOL.
By PROF. L. H. WATERS, SUP'T ST
CLAIRsvILLE SCHOOLS.

By PROF. L. H. WATERS, SUP'T ST.
CLAIRsvILLE SCHOOLS.
Every farm is a school, and every
school, farm; and however different
may be the modes Of cultivation in the
one from the methods Of instruction in
the other, their aims and ends are the
ssme-the perfection and happiness of
mankind. But the lessons of the farm
have greater influence upon the char
acter and happiness of people than has
ths training of the school
The farmer bey who. only after months
of waiting. is rewarded for his patient
toll in grubbing the thicket and tilling the
field learns lesson of patience that he
would never have learned by delving
amid the sapless roots and stems of a
dead language, or by plucking the insip-
id fruit from the leahess branches of
the tree of knowledge.
The first agriculturist, or gardener,
rather, of whom we have an authentic
account, you will remember, incurred
the lasting displeasure of the husband
man and involved his neighbors, and all
who have since chosen his vocation, in a
world of trouble by impatiently tasting
the fruit of the tree that grew in the
midst of the garden.
If he had only learned this lesson of
patience little earlier in life, what q
blessing it would have been to mankind.
The world was young then, and he did
not have the experience of generations
gvue by 10 direet his steps IN the path Of
life.
But this act, so trivial in itself, yet
so fruitful in its consequences, is not to
be attributed to his being farmer; he
might have done something just as mean
If be had been school teacher.
Probably the most important lesson
learned in the, school of the farm is the
lesson of independence. We often hear
allusion made to the independent life of
the farmer; but few of those who have
never lived in the country can realize
the truth of the statement when we say
that the farmers life is an Independent
one.
When we consider the relation of the
products of the farm to those of other
fields of labor we can, by comparison,
arrive at something like just estimate
of the value of those products. In the
the simplest states of society, the pro-
ducts of the farm are sufficient to meet
all the wants of man. And whatever
may be bis refinement and ciyiliZa+
ton, the most of his wants are supplied
from the farm. For his food and raj
ment, for the horse that draws his loads,
for the materials with which he builds
his habitation, and for the fuel that
warns him and cooks his food, he is de-
pendent upon the farmer. The farmer
being able 80 produce all these things for
himself, is comparatively independent
of the people who follow other occupa-
tions And then being untrammeled by
the conventiOnalities of city life, and not
being subjected to the caprices of boss
es and overseers, he is master of his own
time; and by repeated lessons in self
reliance is inspired with love of free4
dom, He soon becomes attached to the
little domain over which he is absolute
ruler, and unconsciously there grows up
10 him such love of home and country
as is not to be found among the trades
and professions.
''True to their home, these faithful hands
To crown with peace their own untainted
soil;
And, true to God, to freedom, to mankind,
If her chained ban-dogs Faction shall unbind
These stately farms that, bending even now,
Bowed their strong manhood to the humble
plow,
Shall rise erect, the guardians of the land,
The same stern iron in the same right hand,
Till DER their hills the shouts Of triumph
run,-
The sword has rescued what the ploughshsre
won."
While the art of farming is the most
ancient and honorable of all occupations,
it is as science still in its infancy. Un-
til within the past quarter of century
but little was known OF the chemistry
of agriculture; but farmers are begin
ming to realize the Importance of a
knowledge of the composition of soils
and their adaptability TO the various
kinds of crops. and there now promises
to be as remarkable revolution in the
methods of the farm as that which has
already taken place in the methods of
instruction in our common schools.
Only few years have passed since
the tyro who possessed but an indiffer>
ent knowledge of the rudiments of the
three Rs was thought to be thoroughly
qualified "to teach the young idea how
to shoot" But the scope of school
work has been so broadened and deepen
ed that to be a successful teacher now
adays one must not only have an ade-
quate knowledge of the branches taught.
but must also possess knowledge Of the
powers and susceptibilities of the child
mind, as we'll as the best methods OF de-
yeloping those powers. 1t is well for US
that we seldom find at the teachers
desk the ignorant and hard-hearted
Squsers or the kind-hearted. though ig-
lncrsnt pedantic village school master.