The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1900-03-15
FARM EDUCATION.
Its Necessity Clearly Shown II
the Farmer Expects to
Keep Up With the
Times.
Paper Read by Miss Jennie Eyler at
the Farmers Institute That is
is Worthy of Careful Con-
sideration by Every
Agpiculturist.

Agriculturist.
O"We must educate We. must edu-
cate! or we must perish by, our own
If we do not short will be
our race from the cradle to the grave.
If in our haste to be rich and mighty
we outrun our literary and religious
they will never overt axe
us or only come up after the battle
of liberty is fought and lost as spoils
to grace the victory and as sources of
inexorable despotism for the perpe-
tuity of our bondage" If these
words quoted by Lyman Beecher for
ty-years ago were true at that, they
are doubly true today.
Education will largely insure our
longevity as a nation. And now on
the threshold of another century. when
questions of so much Importance
stand open for solution, the necessity
for education is greater than ever be-
fore. To many men who in the past
have obtained prominence with train
ing in the three RS merely we point
with pride. But conditions have be-
come more complex and competition
has become more severe. But it is
realization that the time is past when
young man could read law for few
weeks and soon spring to prominence
at the bar or get seat in Cong ress.
The time is past when a young man
after a short course of study could Sc
cure college professorship. The time
is past when student of theology
after few months preparation could
become church bishop. The time is
also past for many other vocations
and callings which could be filed af-
ter a short preparation. But now
such results come only after the most
careful labor and the most persistent,
painstaking preparation. While the
needs for an education is great it can
we'll be said that we are educating.
The growth of schools and colleges
and the increased attendance in the
last twenty years have been little
short of marvellous.
''New occasions teach new duties
Tine makes ancient goods uncouth.
We must upward still and onward,
Who would keep abreast of truth
The farmer to be successful in these
days must keep abreast of the times.
Great changes have taken place in
the industrial world and agriculture
has felt the impetus of this onward
movement to large degree. The
young farmer to meet the demands
of the future must be well educated
in all that pertains to agriculture.
Holmes says of the plowman and
newly plowed field:
'These are the hands whose sturdy labor
brings
TIE peasants food, the golden pomp Of kings
This is the page whose letters shall be seen
Changed by the sun to words Of living green
This is the scholar whose immortal pen
Spells the first lesson hunger taught to men
1hese are the liues which heaven commanded
SLOW on his deeds, the charter Of the soil.
But not only in the industrial field i.
the Importance of the farmer felt
The farm is largely the source from
which the nation draws it's stock Of
brains. Our history from the earliest
times is full of great men whose
youths were spent ON the farm. II
rebounds to the glory of our country
that the farmers have been leaders
in thought and education; that the
farmers have been at the front il
every great and difficult question. II
order that they may continue so it il
essential that their interests in mat.
ters of education should in no wist
abate.
The farmer has, perhaps, more need
of broad school education than has
the citizen. The latter is thrown il
with SO many people that he canno
help gathering a large amount of su
perficial information. The farmer il
more to himself and those who are
his most frequent companions are un
educated people. Again, the farmers
work touches more departments o
general knowledge than does the work
of most merchants and mechanics
A farmers place abounds in machine,
and water, wind and horse power
knowledge of mechanics and natura
philosophy find constant chances fol
application. Each field is a vast chem
ical laboratory. His land is a geolog
ical deposit. His growing crops ant
trees are botanical specimens. The
rearing of his stock is practical zool
Ogy. He is of necessity constan
student of meteorology. Half of hi
work is regulated by the weather
His business touches all department
of political economy. He is an EN-
plOyer of labor, a wholesale and re
tail buyer and seller, usually a bor
rover or lender of money, oftel
both. He is more interested in tn
foreign trade than any other class o
producers, for the larger part of ou
exports is of farm products. TIL
farmer has in general more use fo
composition, rhetoric and elOcutio
than has the merchant. Commercia
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