The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1893-06-23

10 be farmer, study agriculture; eyery-
thing else will be wasted time" Apply the
same reasoning to the other operations of
this would-be farmer. ''If you want crop
OF corn, plant corn; everything else that you
do will be so much time and money wasted.
Drainage, fertilizers, breaking up, cultiva-
ton, all these take time and money and
will soon be out of sight and forgotten; all
you want is corn, so plant corn" l suppose
he will get corn but you know the kind.
The minds Of youth with all of Its latent
energies, with all of its individual charac-
teristics, is well compared to an uncultivated
field that must be drained and broken up
and narrowed, ready for the seed. '.Educa-
tion is the draining, the breaking, the har-
rowing, the preparation for the seed; and
the seed Is ones specially which is to be
planted when the ground is ready" The
popular demand would have us omit the
preparation of the soil and plant the seed at
once, that there may be no loss of time.
You might as well attempt to cut clothes
from the unworked fleece, or shape an axe
from the unreduced ore, as to expect sound
reasoning from an unframed mind.
DO not mistake information for education.
The one is pouring in, the other is draw
ing out process.
Some would have every study stamped
with the utilitarian view, or the bread and
butter side of life. AS the most symmetri-
cal development comes from the gymnasium
and not from the cornfeld, so the best
results more frequently come from those
mental gymnastics in which the utilitarian
idea of obtaining information be not con-
stantly present. ''Studies are tools, the
agricultural implements, not the seed; the
means not the end" The grindstone must
be forgotten in the sharpening of the tool,
so must the subject be lost to view In MAX
ing the application.
President Coulter thinks that the "practi-
cal education" of the popular cry is the most
visionary and impractical thing that can be
imagined, the farmer without tools; and
that the only practical education in fact is
that which is sneered at today as utterly
impractical. He thinks Lowells definition
of university is literally true, "a place
where nothing useful is taught" That is, a
place where mental power is the aim instead
of how can convert this study into bread
and butter? In my rambles among my
books, recently came across the following
description of Mt. Washington: "From the
valley at Fabyan's in comfortable seat
upon broad veranda, one looks out upon
the noble forms of Mt. Washington and its
associates, with their rugged sides and dark
forests, their heads up among the clouds,
and the glory of sunlight over it all. The
mountains looks peaceful, the clouds
seem to rest like filmy veil about the
SUBMITS, and so your impression of noun
tain and cloud is made, something that a
glance can take in, and then you turn to
some other view.
But wait! Suppose with staff in hand and
muscles trained, you begin to climb. At
first the way is smooth enough, but soon
tnO way 10 otCOp unu lOuSh, tuO lOCho aiC
wilder, the forest darkens, and the breath
quickens as the muscles begin to feel the
strain of effort. Higher and higher you
push along the toilsome way. Will it never
end? Are the forest and the rocks and the
steep ascent endless? Up, up. till the
breath Is gone, the muscles quiver, the
brain tbrobs. and You sink upon some deep
couch of moss to rest. Glancing downward,
the world lies at your feet; fields, plains,
valleys, mountains, stretch out in endless
succession, and such a view, such thoughts
as enter you then, were never yours before.
But still there is height above, and throb-
bing heart, and straining muscles, and the
steep, rough road are yours again, as you
press up, up, up, until at last the moment
comes when your feet are on the loftiest
summit. The wild desolation of ruin is