Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-05-11
WHAT rs THE MATTER?
Why DO agricultural College s,udents
Leave the Farm-Pney Study
Law or atdicIne, ma.
W Engage In Mercantile PursuIss-serss
of tns Reasons why They Eearn to-
Dislike Farming.
Atlanta Constitution,

| a gentleman who had been Invited IL
deliver commencement address st ar
agricultural college, In which he had once
held professors chair, recently told tie
writer o: this article that he found it in.
possible to select subject We sug-
gested several topics more or less con-
uected with farmers and their calling. bsa
the ex-professor shock his head. nIt IL
useless to talk to the young men about
ssriculture," he said, ..the fscs is, when
the students leave the coIlege:none of
them go TO farming"
Seeing our bewildered lock, the ex-
! professor went en- to ssy that although
the students went from the farm to the
college and took an agricultural course,
they all left the institution TO study law
or medicine, or to engage In mercantile
pursuits.
THEY GET HIGH, NOTIONS
II don't know how it is" he said,
"but they all get high notions in their
heads, and they think that farming is
TOO slow end Improbable to suit them.
During the whole time l was st the
college, l never knew one of the hun
dreds OF students to return to tie farm. {"
All this was said in deliberate, matter
effect wsy, and we at once jumped to
the conclusion that if our agricultural
schools were Simply used to turn young
farmers into lawyers, doctors ard mer-
chants. there was something wrong some
where.
Ii these facts have not been uncon-
sciUusly ove-ststed, the advocates OF
agricultural education will very naturally
feel inclined to ask few questions. Are
The teachers, as q rule, men vino have a
fsDcy for the leaned professions? Do the
students in their debates discuss literary
and political subjects? Are they allowed
10 devote much time to reading novels,
poetry, history and the newspapers? An
affirmative answer TO these questions Will
explain much that is now mysterious.
THOUGHTS WHICH LEAD ASTRAY.,
The young agricultural student who
finds his professors always talking about
great lawyers, writers and successful
business men, will fall into their wsy of
thinking. Political debates will fire li!m
with the ambition to distinguish himself
at the bar or in public life. Too much'
time devoted TO bellies lettres will mkke
him think of everything in the world <ex-
cept diversified farming.
bul IL may De tnat none or the points
mentioned can be urged sgsinst the sgri-
cultural schools and their teachers
What, then, is the matter? Do. our
Youngsters naturally take dislike to
farm life? Do their fathers tell them
that there is no money in it, and that the
farmers are growing poorer every year,,
There is something in the way of put
ting it. When farmers take gloomy,
hopeless view of their occupation, they
cannot expect their sons to look on the
bright side Of things. And yet, in spite
Of sill that can be said, the fact remains
that the yonng aud Industrious farmer
who goes to work with the advantage of
a scientific education, has 1t in his power
SO make himself happy, independent,
and distinguished. But,
sitter all, success does not depend so
much upon the education, or the land, as
it does upon the msn.