The Educational Needs of the American Farmer. 113 



dense "agricultural atmosphere," through which he shall but diraly discern 

 what other people are doing, and have done in the past; that his horizon, 

 and with it his mind, shall be kept narrowed down to the sphere predestined 

 for him by his parents without his intelligent consent, and that the achieve- 

 ments of the human mind in past ages, from which his present condition 

 has been evolved, shall remain a sealed book to him by the omission, or re- 

 duction to a minimum, of culture studies, he unwittingly attempts to defeat, 

 in the most effectual manner, the very aim and purpose for which farmers' 

 organizations throughout the country, and above all that of the Patrons of 

 Husbandry, expressly and loudly contend. 



What, in fact, are these aims and demands as set forth in the declara- 

 tion of purposes of the grange? They may be formulated under the follow- 

 ing heads : To secure to the farmers their rightful influence in public affairs ; 

 to elevate their pursuit in their own as well as in public estimation ; to ren- 

 der it more profitable and less laborious, and more attractive, a s^pecial com- 

 plaint being the tendency of young men to leave the farm for the cities. 



The latter and most pregnant fact can not be too closely scrutinized as 

 to its causes. It means, of courtie, that from some cause farm life, as it is, is 

 not attractive to the young, and the reason very commonly assigned was 

 tersely expressed in the answer given me in the premises by an old and very 

 level-headed farmer : " The young rascals don't like hard work ! " And yet 

 these same young rascals will go to town and slave as ill-paid clerks or oiher 

 underlings without any reasonable hope of acquiring a competency before 

 their hairs are gray, and think themselves better off than on the farm, where 

 they would be assured of independence, if not of opu'ence. As it is proverb- 

 ially of little use to dispute about tastps, the only debatable questions are, 

 what are the catises of this preference for city life, and how can the farm be 

 rendered more attractive to the young? for, in this country, happily unlike 

 the old, the lines of a young man's life are not, and should not be, laid out 

 for him by virtue of his parentage. The instincts of every American rebel 

 against that kind of predestination, which is the outcome of the fixed class 

 distinctions in the old world. If it is the birthright of every American boy 

 to look upon himself as a possible candidate for the presidency of the United 

 States, how much more is it his right to take his own choice of a life occu- 

 pation. Neither farmer, merchant nor lawyer has any moral right to claim 

 that his sons should, as a matter of course, follow their father's occupation ; 

 in that, as in the choice of a wife, no man can properly act for another who 

 is of sound mind. And in this country, at least, it is not by putting a young 

 man's nose to the grindstone, or by " rubbing it in," that he is likely to be 

 converted either to farming or anvthing else. 



I insist strongly on this, because it is one of the points commonly made 

 against our agricultural colleges that, by offering their students a wider field 

 of study to choose from than would be involved in the professional study of 

 agriculture alone, they " turn farmers' sons away from agriculture." Hence, 

 the demand that these colleges shall be kept apart from the institutions 



