AIMS AND METHODS OF THE STATE COLLEGE. 



19 



who neglect mental improvement will have less means of influence. 

 The minds which become the best by culture will be the more 

 likely to be best used, and will take the leadership in any society. 

 The ignorant laborer may claim that he is as good as any one, and 

 more useful than many who are rated above him ; we do not deny 

 this claim, but goodness is one thing and intelligence is another; 

 and he who is not intelligent, must be comparatively uninfluential, 

 however useful he may be in society. 



While all are ready to admit that knowledge and mental disci- 

 pline are requisite for success in other departments, there prevails 

 a vague notion, that farming, least of all, requires much head 

 work ; and that a fondness for books and study is actually detri- 

 mental to those who would succeed in husbandry. Yet they 

 complain that farmers are not respected as they should be — they 

 drive out from them the more intelligent, and yet demand the 

 influence which intelligence can alone command. If the farmer's 

 boy is bright and quick to learn, it is thought a pity to bury his 

 talents on a farm, he must be educated for one of the learned 

 professions. Thus farmers undervalue their own employments, 

 and then complain that they are not justly appreciated. The 

 impression that farming is a mere mechanical employment, and 

 that success is to be attributed to superior force of thews and 

 sinews, moved in the ruts of old routine, drives intelligent and 

 enterprising boys into other occupations. Farms in Maine are 

 deserted by the families of the old proprietors ; the gilds are in 

 factories, and the boys are clerks in city stores, teachers, or profes- 

 sional men. The industrial class do not undervalue education in 

 other departments ; and they certainly prize highly the privileges 

 that culture will give to their children. Three-fourths of all the 

 graduates at our colleges are farmers' or mechanics' sons. The 

 difficulty in raising the standard of education in the industrial 

 class is that the sons of workmen are educated out of this class. 

 When these students have obtained a liberal education they do 

 not think of going back to the farm or the shop, for they were not 

 educated for industrial pursuits. The farmer did not design so 

 large expenditures to make his boy a successful farmer ; nor is 

 the boy inclined to the occupation of his father. To change this 

 sentiment, and, while giving a liberal education to those really 

 aspiring for it; and who "covet earnestly the best gifts," yet 

 to retain them in industrial pursuits requires some other training 

 than that received in our ordinary colleges. The time so largely 



