The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1894-04-21
ON THE FARM.
Farming in the Old Days and
NOw-What the Rising Cen
Grafton Ought to Learn.

was ninety per cent. agricultural, now 1T
IS but little over sixty per cent, and the
ratio is increasing. The first great
break with barbaism was when land
tilling began to create permanent homes
aud the home instinct, and the next was
when each family could have its sepa
rate house and its individual tastes, |
Any reaction toward the herdiug instinct |
is movement backward. 1t was Jeffer- |
sons profound conviction that agricul. |
ture must uuderlie republican govern |
ment as the basis of prosperity. The |
American people, he said will remain
virtuous as long as agriculture is our
principal object. When we get to be
piled upon one another in large cities, as
in Europe, we shall become as corrupt
as they. But farming does pay; it is pay
ing that is in right hands with right
methods. So long as any race holds to
old fashioned culture and methods of
life, all goes we'll; but by and by the new
ideas and new methods are inevitable,
and there is lack of something. They
are unable to re adjust themselves to the
new order. But We cannot expect to
resurrect the eighteenth century. We
must find out our difficulty, and that is.
as shall aim to show, that our common
education is almost precisely what it was
one hundred years ago, and in no way
fitted to the other .evolUricns in farm
life.
Our fathers on the farm were pre-
ducers in the main for home consumption
Each homestead was expected to be self
supporting or nearly so. But today the
farmer everywhere is trader. in
Dakota he raises his truck for Chicago,
his wheat for London, his corn for New
York. On the other hand, he buys his
fuel, lights, clothes, Il ost of his food and
bis comforts. This filings him in with
the world of spectators and adventures
On the old plan the farmer was every
where moderately successful. He was
educated for that style of work and to
be content with that style of life. Now
machinery has eIbowed him out of his
pride, skill and art; and his wife is also
left without her craft. He no longer
swings his scythe with pride, or his axe
with rhythm. She does rot sew and
knit. The change involves new needs
new desires, new methods. It is imposS
ible to make the farm universally prof
table on such a system. The bottom of
the difficulty is not some mystery; nor is
the cure some nOstium in the way of
statute law.
The secret is, that our common school
education is not adapted to create u race
of farmers capable OF adjusting them
selves to the times We are educating
away from the farms, and not toward
them. The solution of the labor problem
is not in legislation, but in improved
tact and skill in the fingers of the labor
ers. The marriage problem will be
settled, not by layer on layer of laws,
but in higher moral education Of
| boys and girls to comprehend the
purpose of life as altruistic instead of ego
| tistic. The farm pe-rlexity is, in a
| peculiar manner, dependent upon defect
i've education. So long as the old order
| of things existed the curriculum of com
mon education was satisfactory. The
farm boy of the early part of our
century had two sorts Of education-one
hnl e - I'M hn Dth
half was from the schools. At home he
had manual culture, he was taught to
handle tools such as were used, and to be
proud of his skill. At school all he need
ed was the three RS. The farm boy
only needed to read, to write, to cipher
the rest of his education was on the
| land
But note how total is the change
| That part of the boy education which
| consisted in skilliul handling of scythe
| and axe and other tools is useless and
vacated. SO far rs the three RS are con
cerned they can mostly be taught at
| home. What We want OF our country
schools is to make farming today intelli
gent, interesting, profitable. The boys
and girls should first OF all be taught the
| composition of the rocks and soils with
which they have to deal. THIS should
be eomplemented with good know ledge
| of plant and animal life. ! suppose that
no one could be more ignorant of these
| things than the average farmer. He is
| in no case taught in tho common school
| the structure of the animals he employs,
or the grains that he eats. Geology
would follow with biology in the forms
of zoology and botany, and in its divis-
ions of physiology, entomology and
ornithology; that is, insist that our
country scloo's shall undertake to make
| farmers.
The boy on the farm-tho girl quite
| as much-needs to know the things
under his feet and over his head-the
| soil, the life in and on the SOIL and his
| relation to them. Before the age OF
seven or eight, in we'll TO do families
where kindergartens are impossible, the
| child should be taught Closely to observe
He should learn to see well aud to use
| all his senses. frer that age books
should be used as aids to observation;
not to dispense with original observati, n
but to assist. Every child should become
an investigator. When this change is
made, and the clrrcculpm rs read
Justed as suggested, | do not say that
you cannot drive our boys away from
the farm iuto trade and manufacture,
| but | do say that unless :. lad is born
with particular bias Tor something else
he will love the land SO hat be will not
| wish to leave.
MaryeliOUs Results.
From letter written by Rev J Gu
| derman, OF Dimondale, Mich We are
permitted to make this ex rac': | have