The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1904-06-18
HOW TO EDUCATE FARM BOYS.
The Isdependent, N. Y.


would You advise young man from the coun-
try to give special attention in his college
course, if he desires to 60 back to the farm r
Agriculture has come to the front with re-
markable strides, and is assuming its place
once more at the head of the industries Such
question as the above is pertinent to the age.
It is no longer possible to farm it in general
way without specific knowledge of that branch
which is to be pursued. No industry is more
specialized or will be hereafter more specialized
than that of farming. There will be dairy
men, pomologAts, truck gardeners and others
engaged with apiaries, and others with small
fruit growing. While these departments will
overlap each other, yet each one will require
very special training for success under the
laws of competition.
This does not mean that intensive farming
has not come in to displace extensive farming,
while the future farm will grow large num-
Der of crops rather than be devoted to one or
two. Besides its special hobby the new farm
is certain to divide its efforts between half q
dozen crops or more. In other words, the
farmer will not have all his eggsin one basket.
There will be less of one sort raised, so that
the loss of single crop by drought, or fail.
ure to realize because of q glutted market, will
year. In fact, a specific knowledge Of one de.
partment of culture, as, for instance, OF small
fruit growing, will require and involve speci-
fic knowledge Of bees. There will be fewer
bankrupts on wheat, or on corn, or on potatoes,
or on strawberries.
the farm from his college training will have to
consider, therefore, not only his specific work.
but in general way he must understand cor
related sciences A thorough knowledge of
sptppel0gE rat nter iEt bisf a HSsefnmasGHsst
know his friends from his enemies among
bugs or beetles, or he will surely be whipped
from the field. 1t will be an unspeakable
blunder if he be allowed to go through a col
lege course and come out with very general
and loose knowledge about his chief rivals.
1t is q recognized fact that these minute crea-
lures are the real competitors with human
beings for the possession of the land and the
crops. 1t has been said that not plant ex-
lists without all insect enemy. This is not
quite true, for they are no more the enemies
of the plants they infest than we are. Many
of them are benehcent associates of vegetable
growth, and contribute to the health and the
wealth of the trees they inhabit. 1t is mans
business to find out which of these insects he
can compel to cooperate with him in fruit or
grain production, and which of them are in
hOspitable to his purposes. The farm boy who
leaves college without entomology will be left
behind in the race.
1t is equally important that the student who
is preparing himself for farm work shall enter
into very intimate acquaintance with bird
life. We are just beginning to grasp the fact
that the farmer has no ally to compare with
these friends on the wing. Assent to this fact
as strongly as you may, it will be long while
before it is so fully felt that our rural popula-
ton will have entered into q systematic
scheme for making the birds joyously at home
on the farm. One Of our ablest ornithologists
argues that without the birds human beings
could not possibly sustain life. However this
may be- we are certainly dependent in orchard,
field and garden upon the robin and his COM
paniOns, more than upon all other appliances,
in our battle with the insects. We have yet
to learn how to count them into our families,
and make our homesteads their safe and de-
lightful resort.
Yet while we believe in special courses and
industralism for the farm boy,-that is for
specific studies directly fitting him for his
specific work-we are very far from believing
that he will be well equipped for his life work
unless his curriculum Is broadened out to take
in more or less of what are called humanita-
rian studies. He should certainly be good
student of American history and of social econ
omieS. The time is now at hand when the
farmer must and will emancipate himself from
the leadership of professional politicians. In
dependent voters increase in number and in
fuence. We are moving back to the day when
our Presidents and Governors may be selected
from rural lie, as were w aSulnBIou anu Jei-
ferson,
Bear in mind, however, that there is less
danger of isolated thinking and intellectual
side-tracking in agriculture than in any other
of the pursuits. No other industry so reaches
out TOWARD collateral sciences and arts, and SO
readily co-labors with them. To study agri-
culture is, in fact, to study nearly every mod.
ern scence-geology geography, entomology,
orthodoxy chemistry. The farmer must
also comprehend the laws of supply and de-
mand In fact, the educated young man, the
EatsslLf df adsis'osis 81 s sit6aEioh Is
anywhere near correct, the young man from
the country will carry back to the farm, from
his college course, very distinctive, but fully
as broad an education as that which is taken
by the lawyer or by the minister into profess
sional life.
We look to see the time, and not so far away,
which no single class of men will be so gener-
ously, yet specifically, educated as farmers.
A great deal may be eliminated from the pres
ent college curriculum. Agricultural colleges
cannot be loaded down with complex courses
in philology, pedagogics, psychology and an;
Gent languages. Physics, however, will find
answered the question of our interlocutor as
fully as we might, yet it is certain that the
farm boy is going to be made after different
model than that which has heretofore ruled in
collegiate life; nor have we the slightest doubt
that education simply to make gentlemen will
gradually be eliminated in favor of an educa-
ton that will glorify work and express the
fullest cooperation of the hands with the
brain.
AT THE annual commencement of the Junior