LECTURES AND ESSAYS READ AT INSTITUTES. 335 



And here I will ask a question which reaches right into the heart of our sub- 

 ject : — What more direct and efficient means can be taken to elevate the stand- 

 ing of the business, to advance its true interests, to arouse an "esprit du 

 corps," than to go systematically to work upon the rising generation and 

 impress its members with a correct idea of the real dignity, importance and 

 desirableness of their paternal calling? I think there can be none, and this I 

 should consider the first step to be taken in tlie education of farmers' boys 

 as such. We all know the true meaning of the word educate, namely, to lead 

 out or develop all the latent capabilities of a man. It may also mean that 

 special training of mind and muscle that gives him the skill and knowledge 

 requisite to practice with success any particular craft or profession. We shall 

 use it mostly in the latter sense, for we take it for granted that most farmers 

 now-a-days have outgrown the old superstition that all the "larnin"' their 

 sons needed to make them successful in life was a knowledge of the " three R's, 

 Keadin', 'Kitin,' and'Rithmetic." The prejudice against agricultural colleges 

 and agricultural papers, and " book-farming in general, is fast dying out ; and 

 when it is gone entirely, and the phrase "Scientific Farmer" becomes as com- 

 mon as doctor, attorney or professor, then we will see the brightest and 

 bravest of the farmers' boys coming back from college or high school, and 

 devoting theiir best energies to raising the standard of their chosen profession 

 of agriculture. Then we will see more farmers sent to Congress, where they 

 can look sharply after the interest of the farming community, share equally 

 with others in the honors and influence of office, and lend the weight of their 

 common-sense and practical wisdom to the councils of the nation. Then farm- 

 ing will rise above the servile and slavish drudgery it has been called, and will 

 take on the rank and dignity of a profession, and will not only call forth into 

 legitimate exercise the noblest powers and deepest learning of its votaries, but 

 will also confer upon them proportionate rewards. 



So I think there should be no discrimination for or against farmer's sous; 

 they have the same right to a manly, liberal education that others have. I say 

 nothing about the dead languages — leave that to taste. A man may have an 

 excellent education and know " small Latin and less Greek." For practical 

 purposes, I believe the time required to master Greek would be far better 

 employed in studying history and the natural sciences. So much for educa- 

 tion in the general sense, the amount of time devoted to it will always be more or 

 less governed by the length of the father's purse and the taste and ambition of 

 the boy. 



But this special education is what we are after, mainly. How shall a farmer 

 educate his boys that they will be in love with the farm, that when away to 

 school or college they will return to it like a carrier pigeon to the home dove-* 

 cot? I think you will agree with me when I claim that if a man has succeeded 

 in raising to a noble and useful manhood and womanhood a large family of 

 children, he has accomplished a work of vastly more importance to himself 

 and humanity than clearing up a new farm or amassing a large fortune. And 

 we can hardly conceive of a more comfortable old age than that of the old 

 farmer whose family has grown up and got well settled in life around him, 

 one or more of them tilling the paternal acres and tenderly caring for the 

 wants of their aged parents, and supplementing the weakness of their declin- 

 ing years with the strength and vigor of youth ; and we cannot help feeling 

 that the man wlio has failed in this respect has missed one of the most 

 desirable objects of life. Yet how few realize in the early part of their life 

 struggle the relative importance of these things. How many farmers I have 



