^340 STATE BOARD OF AGKICULTURE. 



lurnin "' is well enough if a body has gumption enongh to get it, but it won't fill 

 the stomach, nor cover the back, nor make a man any ''honester or contenteder," 

 .and for his part he will be pleased if his children know enough to take care of 

 Avhat they get and mind their own business, as he always tried to do. And he 

 "lived and died firm in this faith. But progress is the watchword of the day ; 

 not quite as often do we hear the remark tliat he does not know enough to be 

 any thing but a farmer. The time is now past when a little knowledge of 

 *'readin, writin, and rithmetic" constitutes the catalogue necessary for a farm- 

 er's education. Perhaps a mistake more common than that of total indiffer- 

 ence to training and education is that of thinking that the only way to be fair 

 with all is to give each and every one the same opportunity, no more, no less, 

 as if a family of children were like a row of round peas in a respectable pod, all 

 alike in soul and substance. Again, we often find that the child's course is 

 entirely prescribed before hand. The father informs us he is "going to make a 

 lawyer of this boy," a doctor of that, and an architect of the third, while he has 

 not decided for the fourth, unless he keep him on the farm. All right if he 

 has examined the bearings and hit upon the right course, otherwise all foolish- 

 ness, as it would be to say they should all be ministers, whether possessing the 

 grace or no. If, instead of changing his plans and helping them to be what 

 their gifts and inclinations favor, he still persists in "making or breaking" 

 them after his own way, how soon is their energy crippled, their true individu- 

 fility destroyed, their strength wasted and lost for want of expression. In this 

 day of activity and thought men are educated to see the necessity of science and 

 skill on the farm. No one can deny that there are many instances where "book 

 learning" seems to do very little if any good for the possessor, or through him the 

 Avorld ; but it is possible that the failure arises not from the education received, 

 but from the ability not possessed in the first place. A man or woman who has 

 little tact for the ordinary duties of life will not have less by having had oppor- 

 tunity for instruction and discipline ; while those who succeed well without it 

 could accomplish ten fold more with its assistance ; especially would it thus aid 

 the farmer, who has a field broad as the world, rich as the hidden wealth of 

 mother nature. The magnetic powers of earth and sky, the chemical attrac- 

 tions and repulsions of soils, the germinal forces of plants and trees, the won- 

 drous engineering, — putting all human skill to blush, — by which the Divine 

 povi'er sends the right atom from the insensate clod to the riglit place iu each 

 root, and trunk, and wheat-head or topmost twig of tallest oak ; all these and 

 mucli beside are in his Avondrous realm. What scope for study, for thought, 

 for work. What ample field for largest powers, for best culture, for boldest 

 experiment, for most progressive, yet sagacious effort. Then how indispensable 

 to success is careful training in books and work, theory and practice, the devo- 

 tion of men of the highest culture and powers to this v/ork. 



But is this education now considered so necessary to be confined exclusively 

 to the sterner sex? The answer comes faintly, but truly, no. The oft-repeated 

 cry of woman's mental inferiority is fast being silenced ; for the present age is 

 constantly proving the fallacy of the theory. She has always been taught to 

 consider showy accomjilishments as more to bo desired than profound knowl- 

 edge of science and mathematics. She learns by intuition that as a general 

 thing literary ladies are not attractive to the other sex, and she desires, of 

 course, to please them, as is perfectly natural, so she only cultivates those 

 branches that have a tendency to make her pleasing in the eyes of father, 

 brotlier, or future husband. After she receives her diploma from some modern 



