The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-11-08

1t has been said that the best crop
raised on the farm is that of the boys
and girls. Unless we have gotten a per-
verted view of life one of our best rea-
sons for caring for stock and crops is
that we may have the means for caring
for this extra crop" to fit ii for use
fulness in life and to put it on a higher
mental and moral plane than may
have been possible to ourselves. But
not a few seem to forget what their
object originally was and glory only in
the fact that their boys are getting
large enough TO enable them to care for
more stock. They have gotten matters
turned around, and the means have be-
come the end.
The colleges throughout the land have
thrown open their doors and thousands
of farmers sons should enter such of
those institutions as can fit them for
places of usefulness and enable them
to enjoy the higher things of life while
earning a livelihood in a contest with
others that grows more severe as our
country grows older and more thickly
populated. Our learned professors in
eastern institutions are using the promi-
nent reviews TO prove to their own sat
isfaction that all true education must
be based upon ancient languages, and it
does not become a farmer to criticise
aught they say. but If such an education
were desirable for farmer boys, IL is
beyond the reach of nine-tenths of
those who should get off the farm for a
year or two or three and cultivate a
taste for study that they can carry
with them through life and acquire in
formation that will be directly helpful
TO them I'm their work.
a boy can Ego up according to Keno
phon's "Anabasis." encamping a few
'parasangs" farther each night. can
wonder whether Socrates ever said half
that Plato alleges and learn to "scan"
Homer much better than to understand
him, but 1t does not teach one how
plants feed. or how to lay by money for
the education of his son i'm turn while
raising siXty-cent wheat or three-cent
cattle. study Of ancient languages
may enlarge a boys vocabulary, but
that is not an implement needed over
much on the farm. The Quaker's 'yea
yea and may, nay" are fully as force
full. 1t is true that the chief aim I'm
| seeking an education is not to enable
one to get rich. and the worshiper of a
dollar Is fast losing caste among those
whose good opinion one cares particu-
| larly 20 have, but the majority of the
| farmers sons who should attend some
| institution Of learning this fall and win
ter need a practical education that will
enable them 10 do better work instead
| of being compelled to go back TO the
| A Is C's Of agriculture when they return
| to the farm, as do those who spend their
| boyhood in classical college.
| But it Is not so much the character
| A he uya ff,.,, q.
STABILITY and duty of giving the boys
| some kind OF an education. IL Is so very
| easy TO permit a few years To slip by,
| hoping for better crops and more money.
and then it is too late. The boy is out
| Of the notion, and the school days are
over. One OF the saddest results of the
| depression through which agriculture
/ has passed, or shall we say, is passing
| Is that a generation of farm boys are
| not getting the educational advantages
| they would have gotten If the prosperity
/ Of the two decades ago had continued
until this time. People are reading
! more than ever before. the daily papers
are going into farm houses everywhere
| and our colleges would have double
| their capacity IL all who are Interested
in education thought they could COM
mand the means to educate their chill
dren.
But many more students could be
| furnished by the farmers than are If
| those who are able TO educate their
| children would do so. While IL is a
matter Of private judgment, a matter
| that parents decide for themselves, yet
the writer knows boys and girls who
| want better educations than local
| schools give and who value mental ac-
| quirementS more than money without
| them, that could be made happier and
BETTER by the expenditure of some
| money now than by receiving a boarded
| sum when too late TO use il as they now
| could, and parents who live and work
| for their children may sometimes serve
| them by studying and supplying legiti-
mate wants I'm childhood.
one hears so much about the boys
| staying on the farm They should not
be educated away from 1t. hut If ones
natural bent is in another direction, and
his moral stamina is sufficiently great
| 10 enable him to be a man anywhere.
| why should not farmer boy have a
chance to mark out his career just as
well as the town boy? In a college
town OF which we have some acquaint-
! ance it is not thought improper for n
boy to undertake to fit himself for any
| career he may choose. but in many
| country districts the boy would be
| ridiculed who proposed to become a
| scientist an editor. or even a first-class
| horse doctor. IL does not seem right
| TO try to make farmers out Of boys
whose grain runs the other way. The
farm is the place for those who like it,
| but the day is near at hand when II will
be safest to make doctors and lawyers
out of the dullest of them, If they lean
| that way. Soberly and seriously, the
most important question to be decided
on many farms this fall whether II is
| realized or not. is the one whether the
minds Of the children shall have year
or two of solid study 10 enable them to
catch up in growth with their muscles.
L