Martinsburg statesman. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1869-1906, 1906-04-06
THE COMING FARMB0Y.
The Educated Farmer Becoming a
Power in State and Nation.

Power in State and Nation.
The time Is fast coming If, indeed,
it is not already here, when the in
telligent, industrious and energetic
farmer will occupy far more promi-
nent place in the affairs of State and
Nation that ever before. The rapid
pace necessarily adopted by those en-
gagged in professional and mercantile
pursuits, in order to successfully meet
the competition assailing them on
every hand, is not conducive to the
mental endowment of their descend
ants, and the farmboy of rugged con-
stitution and Industrious habits will
be in ever growing demand to fill their
depleted ranks. Much has been writ
ten in regard to the prominent part
played by such breeding and early
country training, in the successful
management of great mercantile enter
prises and the marvellous discoveries
and achievements of great professional
leaders and much more will still be
written upon the same subject. The
farms Of the country have been and
will continue to be the nurseries from
whence the degenerating forces of
those overworked brains and shattered
nerves will be recruited.
More important still, there is also
a most promising future for the farm
boy who takes up agriculture as an
occupation. Farming is no longer
mere drudgery and muscular exertion
in which man occupies about the same
place as the beasts of burden, but 1t
is an industry calling for the keenest
intelligence and the application Of
we'll defined principles.
II the farm boy can be made to
understand that the cultivation of the
soil and the feeding of stock are based
upon principles as clearly defined as
those underlying any mechanical or
mercantile pursuit, and that the same
skill and energy applied to the former
as to the latter will yield equally pro-
f1table returns, he will be more greatly
attracted to his home acres. When to
these facts are added the opportunity
to participate in public affairs and
the assurance that because he becomes
a farmer, he does not surrender all
claim to public recognition and re-
nown, he will enter upon the work of
the farm with greater zest and courage
and with less foreboding.
In order to obtain these results, it
is necessary that the farm lad be fitted
for the work as thoroughly as persons
are fitted for other professions. He
must study agriculture as one who Is
to become a physician studies medi.
cine, or the one who Is to be an at
torney studies law. He must not only
know how to do all things, but he
must also know why the things are
done. He must know the effect upon
the soil of different methods of culture
and the effect upon animals of various
systems of feeding. He must know
thousand things unknown to his an
cestors generation or two ago, and
then-and not till then will he be in a
position to practice farming as intelli-
gently and as successfully as the ply
stefan practices medicine or the at
torney practices law.
1t requires time, hard study and
some money to acquire this knowledge,
but not so much as Is required to pre-
pare for other occupations and profess
sions yielding good returns. There is
no study necessary for the laborer
who uses pick and shovel at dollar
and a half a day, but preparation is
necessary Tor MIN who earns three
or four times that amount in any line
OF work. There is no preparation nec-
essary for the farmer who is content
to harvest what the soil produces of
its own accord, but preparation is
necessary for the farmer who produces
three or four times the average yield
OF the SOIL The man who manipulates
the soil and directs the elements of
nature in an intelligent manner in the
production of that crop is an almost
greater factor than the soil itself.
Father and mothers who desire their
boys to become or remain farmers.
should encourage them to make the
requisite preparation for their life
work and then there will be fewer
abandoned farms and fewer dis
couraged and dishaartened farmers