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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



Insignificant, therefore, as these minor agricultural 

 and manufacturing products may seem, they mount 

 up in the aggregate to a very considerable trade, and 

 o-ive profitable employment to large numbers. Straw 



lias frequently been considered the emblem of wortli- 

 lessnsss ; but skill, ingeauity, and taste may vastly 

 enhance its economic value, and convert it from a 

 waste product to an important article of commerce. 



THE FARM-SERVANT. 



This is essentially an age of progress. Every year 

 that passes over our heads sees the world becoming 

 wiser and more experienced in the arts both of war and 

 peace, and adds item after item to our huge catalogue of 

 national lore. The nineteenth century has beheld the 

 rise and development of that huge railway system which 

 has now extended itself in all its varied ramifications 

 through the length and breadth of the land, and has 

 long since begun to form an important moiety in our 

 financial economy. The nineteenth century has seen 

 the very lightning — once considered intractable — once, 

 practically speaking, despised as useless, even to a pro- 

 verb—subdued by the strong hand of science, and made 

 to fly to the uttermost parts of the earth in a moment 

 at the beck of man, defying the otherwise insuperable 

 barriers of distance, and heralding the rapid progress of 

 that universal civilization which soon, we trust, is to 

 hold the vast expanse of the habitable world in its firm 

 though kindly grasp. 



And how with education — how with the social and 

 moral amelioration of the viasses all this time ? Have 

 they made advances at all proportioned to their increased 

 facilities and multiplied advantages ? We fear not. We 

 fear that the minds of men have been so engrossed with 

 the consideration of abstruse and scientific subjects, that 

 they have become almost oblivious of, or indiff'erent to 

 the vast amount of ignorance, aye, and something far 

 worse than that too, which at present prevails among 

 the humbler inhabitants of our leading agricultural dis- 

 tricts— that they have begun to "despise the day of 

 small things." 



We might extend our observations to almost all the 

 lower orders of the community, whether belonging to 

 the artizan or the agricultural classes, though, for ob- 

 vious reasons, we confine ourselves in the present paper 

 entirely to the latter. 



Look at that strange specimen of humanity who 

 slowly and listlessly plods along that narrow lane. His 

 eyes are lighted up with no single spark of intellectual 

 fire ; his forehead is low, and expressive of the most 

 abject, most hopeless stupidity; while his widely- 

 ooened mouth, and shuffling, careless gait bespeak 

 either stolid indifference or brutish sensuality. He 

 belongs to that long-neglected class commonly known 

 as " farm '' or " agricultural labourers " — ^utterly indis- 

 pensable to the community of which he forms so humble 

 a member, yet, at the same time, alas ! too frequently 

 looked down upon by those very persons who ought to 

 be his warmest, most stanch patrons and supporters. 

 Perhaps you are inclined to think that he is almost 



beyond the reach of any intellectual improvement, and 

 that it would be scarcely worth your while to take any 

 decided steps in his behalf. If this be the case, our ex- 

 perience in this respect diff'ers materially from yours. 

 We have seen the farm-servant visited at his daily work 

 and in the retirement of his cottage, and invited to be- 

 come a regular attendant of that most admirable of 

 rustic institutions — the evening school. Many a time 

 have we presided over those well-filled forms, and have 

 watched with the deepest interest the effects of our 

 simple training on the uncultivated intellects committed 

 to our care. We have been careful never to weary our 

 rustic scholars by imposing tasks upon them which they 

 have neither the ability nor the inclination to fulfil ; 

 still more do we endeavour to confine our tuition to 

 those elementary branches of instruction which, like 

 reading, writing, and arithmetic, are strictly practical, 

 and are adapted to meet the requirements of every-day 

 life. And what has been the result ? Why, we have 

 had the unspeakable pleasure of seeing our arduous 

 labours appreciated and our simple precepts improved ; 

 we have seen our pupils making marked and rapid pro- 

 gress along the great highway of social improvement ; 

 we have seen more than one rustic eye moistened with a 

 tear of joy as the plough-boy has felt that he is no 

 longer an object of utter indiff'erence to the cold world 

 around him; and, above all, we have seen the once- 

 stupid, clownish farmer's lad gradually rise from his 

 former state of almost brutish ignorance, till at last he 

 becomes not only a useful but an important member 

 of society, and after the lapse of years, in a letter to his 

 benefactor, declares that he " owes everything to the 

 evening school." 



Nor have our exertions been confined to the above- 

 mentioned institution alone. The claims of the " lending 

 library," or the plain lecture on some popular and 

 instructive subject, have not been overlooked, and have 

 ever been attended with like success. Is not this some- 

 thing which we have a right to be proud of ? 



Farmers ! a word with you ere we draw this paper 

 to a close. Do you think that the foregoing remarks 

 cannot possibly concern you ? If so, you are greatly 

 mistaken. It is true, you may not have time or in- 

 fluence enough to originate a lending-library or an 

 evening-school ; but then, if you cannot originate, you 

 can at least countenance and support such laudable 

 institutions, and in your intercourse with your farm- 

 servants you can show that you are not altogether indif- 

 ferent to their social, moral, or religious amelioration. 



G. E. H. 



