THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



J 03 



THE PUPIL SYSTEM. 



Well done, Mr. Bond ! The first paper read before 

 the Farmers' Club was a good production ; the second 

 furnished the results of an extended and accurate obser- 

 vation in a most convincing way ; while the third, if it 

 does want a little more definitiveness in its suggestions, 

 surpasses the rest in boldly, honestly, and affectionately 

 dealing with a very delicate subject. From its com- 

 mencement to its close we read it with one unfeigned 

 feeling of admiration — admiration, not, as we said be- 

 fore, so much for the completeness of its suggestions 

 with regard to the character of agricultural education, 

 as for its spirited advice towards the formation of better 

 habits than characterize the majority of those now learn- 

 ing or commencing the business of farming. 



Whatever may have been thought of Mr. Bond's 

 paper by those members of the Club who happened to 

 hear it — and, judging from the discussion which followed, 

 the feeling excited did not seem to be very strong in its 

 favour — we are certain that its value will be felt through- 

 out the country, and its results will become apparent in 

 many a social circle. It is hard to say where such seed, 

 dropped in due season, will not take root. The course 

 of a life has not unfrequently been turned from indif- 

 ference to earnestness by a mere word, a casual remark ; 

 and viewed only as the utterance of a strong heart in 

 solitude to many another heart, the value of Mr. Bond's 

 effort to arouse young farmers, actual and expectant, to 

 a true sense of their duty, cannot be over-estimated. 



Conscience, it is true, is a guide to man : it is a posi- 

 tive indicator to the great truths of God's moral uni- 

 verse ; but beyond this, one man's conscience appears to 

 be no guide for another — there seems to be, in fact, no 

 possibility of a universal creed. While, however, this 

 is the case, there are not many standards of right ; for 

 there can only be one standard of right, and the differ- 

 ences in opinion with regard to it will depend upon the 

 different media through which we view it, be they dark , 

 hazy, or clear. When a man ceases to think, becomes 

 inactive, and is alive alone to his own enjoyment, he falls 

 away into bad habits less from inclination than from the 

 want of inclination. Content with securing their own 

 comfort, our young men have allowed the Spirit of In- 

 difference to place his seal upon their noblest faculties ; 

 and during this fatal slumber they are in danger, like 

 Samson in the lap of Delilah, of being shorn of their 

 strength. The clarion voice of warning has gone forth, 

 and we doubt not its effect will be felt far and near. 



So far as we know of the young men of the present 

 day, the description given by Mr. Bond, and which we 

 subjoin, is most faithful : " More than half the young 

 men destined for agriculture in England actually waste, 

 and worse than waste, the first four or five years of their 

 freedom from scholastic restraint. Theirs is a thorough 

 desultory life ; they throw up all intellectual culture, 

 and they have no intellectual standard of attainment at 

 which to aim. They probably assist in the farm manage- 



ment ; but, as they have no responsibility, the farm oc- 

 cupies but little of their thoughts. As they feel but 

 little interest, they observe but little ; and the rat-hunt, 

 the cricket-match, a run with the hounds, the quadrille 

 party, the shooting exploit, with other amusements, com- 

 bined with a profusion of tobacco, are their real employ 

 ments — their true business of thought and occupation. 

 How are the evenings spent ? Often in a desultory do- 

 nothing industry ; or in card-playing and smoking — in 

 colouring a clay or an idolized meerschaum ; or, if in 

 literature, in perusing some trashy love-tale, in studying 

 Blaine's Encyclopcedia of Rural Sports, or in reading 

 the last number of the London Journal.'" 



Is this the sort of discipline likely to produce good 

 men of business ? If it is true — and we sincerely think 

 it to be so — that farming requires, in those who pursue 

 it for a livelihood, acquirements perhaps more varied 

 and deep than those which are required by members of 

 either of the three learned professions, surely this train- 

 ing must be strangely at fault. So far as our own ex- 

 perience of pupil life is concerned, and so far as our own 

 observations of pupil life in many different places goes, 

 we are of opinion that it is a great farce, and that the 

 jglOO or £200 lodged annually with farmers for the 

 education of young men to the farming business might 

 as well be invested in any of the hundred-and-one bubble 

 schemes which annually burst upon the shores of com- 

 merce. We do not say that this need be the case ; but, 

 speaking generally, it is the case. There is such an 

 absolute want of system in the training of young men 

 upon a farm, that a mortifying result may be safely pre- 

 dicted. A young man must bs very self-reliant — he 

 must have fixed plans, he must be determinately bent 

 upon success, if he is to receive any pjood where there is 

 no discipline — where there is no inducement to study, 

 and perhaps but little inducement to attend to business 

 either. 



Now it is scarcely to be expected that a boy should 

 leave school with such a strong sense of duty as shall 

 carry him unswervingly through these temptations to 

 indolence upon the right hand and the left. We gene- 

 rally conclude upon what will be, by what has been : 

 certain causes are known to produce certain effects ; and 

 we ask our readers, therefore, whether they think an 

 escape from discipline, and an introduction to a life of 

 physical and mental indolence, is likely in the youth of 

 sixteen to nourish and develope the germs of a vigorous 

 manhood ? 



But the fault does not lie with the pupils — it lies with 

 those who receive pupils. Generally speaking they 

 recognize very little the responsibility which attaches to 

 their position — they only see so much added to their 

 yearly income. In nine cases out of ten they are in no 

 way competent to fulfil the duties they undertake, and 

 care very little in what way the youths under their care 

 employ their time. To be perpetually questioned as to 



