The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-11-20
LETTERS TO THE FARM BOY.

health, the keen, inquiring mind, and
the practical knowledge that the
farm boy, if he is worth bringing
up, will acquire on the farm.
Before going any further, let me
ask you if you have gotten all. you
can get out of the little white
schoolhouse at the corner of the
four sections? Have you mastered
the three R's-readin', ritin', and
'rithmetic? Are you quite sure that
you are thorough master of these?
Can you solve all the problems which
come up on the farm? Can you
measure with the chain the different
fields and tell how many ere are
in them, as accurately as your father
can, by merely ploughing them for
the last ten or fifteen years? Can
you tell how many bushels of corn
there are in the different cribs or in
the barn? How many cubic feet of
air there are in each room in the
house? How many gallons will the
we'll or cistern hold? Can you spell
accurately and pronounce correctly?
Can you p~uncUuate? Can you write
a legible hand, and read SO as to
convey to the nearer the exact sense
of what you read? You can learn
all these things at the country
school, and if you can do all this,
you can do more than can some col
lege graduates of my acquaintance.
If not, you had better take down
your school books and master their
contents so thoroughly that they
will be like the iron in your blood.
Then put your wits to work in gath
ering together enough money during
the next year or two to give you one
term at the Agricultural College of
your State.
Whether you are to be a farmer
or a professional man, give close at
tentiOn to farm problems. One of
the worst humbugs of the day is the
idea that prevails among educated
men that a knowledge of the dead
languages is very important, if not
esSentiOn, to the training, or educa
ton. of the mind. That their study
gives this training is true. They act
as ii grIndStOne on which to sharpen
the mind but the problems ON the
farm, such as the various movements
Of water in the soil, the structure OF
the plant, the digestion and assimila-
ton of food by live stock, the detec
tiOn of diseases among plants and
animals, and the best methods OF
prevention and cure. furnish as
good Il grindstOne upon which to
sharpen your mind as the languages
people used who have been dead
o than two thousand years. Ed
ucatiOn, after all, is simply the fit
ting of the eye to see, of the hand
to work, of the mind to perceive the
truth, of the tOnge or pen to express
1T and it is by the practice of al,
these that we educate ourselves and
become strong, clear-headed men.
THE FAR BOY AND HIS FUTURE BUsI-
NESS.
If you think, my dear boy, that
town life is easier than country life,
on the whole, or that it gives more
average comfort, or that it has less
care or requires less eXertiOn, or that.
on the average, it makes better men,
then you are entirely mistaken. The
farm boys who come to town and,
after ten, fifteen, or twenty ear OF
close application, live in those fine
houses and run those large esta blish-
ments and shape the policies of the
city and State are of a different class
OF boys altogether. They are the
boys who learned on the farm to
ride and shoot and tell the truth.
The first gave them courage, the
second, accuracy and steadiness of
purpose, and the third, that integrity
that lies at the basis of all success
IN life in short, the qualities that
make IA man IL success on the farm
will make him "a success in the city
and the qualities which make him
"a success in the city will make him ii
success on the farm.
Opportunities come right along to
the man who is ready to use them,