A HIGHER STANDARD FOR THE FARMER. 965 



Parents make heroic efforts and show much self-sacrifice in educating sons and daughters 

 off the farm, but it is a rare thing to see the same exertions put forth to specially educate 

 their children for the farm, so that they may enjoy agricultural life, be successful in it, and 

 profit by it. One reason why farming has been held in such low estimation is the idea which 

 has so largely prevailed that any one can be a farmer. Many seem to think that from instinct 

 alone, and without education or the aid of science, one can perform all that is necessary in 

 that employment, and that success depends mainly on the amount of physical labor 

 expended. Hence it has been too much the practice that when a person of ingenuity or fond 

 of research a youth of promise and eager for distinction has appeared in the ranks of 

 farmers his attention has been immediately turned away from agriculture to some other field. 



The boy with an inclination for stiidy and a taste for knowledge, instead of being pro 

 vided with an education to render him peculiarly useful on the farm, not only by applying 

 science to its operations, but also by enlightening his father and brothers in this and other 

 branches of useful learning, is at once exiled from the homestead and put in training for one 

 of what are called the learned professions, and despite the fact that all of these are over 

 crowded. Or if not a born student, but yet of superior address and enterprise, the boy gpoes 

 to a commercial college and to the city to be trained as a merchant. Another that evinces 

 unusual genius in the construction of things is fitted to be an artisan. And so it is that the 

 boys kept at home for a supposed lack of talents are doomed to work upon the farm with 

 comparatively few educational advantages. 



Such a policy operates to deprive the farming community of its best talents, and in 

 doing this to prevent elevation of character and success in the development of rural 

 resources. The favored boys learn to despise the occupation of their fathers, and feel that it is 

 an employment unworthy of them. Those destined to it feel correspondingly degraded and 

 are apt to conclude that nothing but brute force is needed in the performance of their duties. 



How can agriculture be expected to win its rightful place while such practices prevail to 

 any extent ? and this picture is not overdrawn.&quot; 



Some boys who have left the farm have done so because their natural tastes strongly 

 directed them to choose a certain special employment, and under any conditions at home 

 would have preferred to have chosen a different pursuit than farming. This is as it should 

 be, for if all were farmers we should have no physicians, lawyers, ministers, dentists, 

 merchants, mechanics, etc. ; besides, when a person has a special and strongly marked talent 

 in any particular direction he will almost invariably be more successful in following out his 

 inclinations in that respect than if induced to choose a profession for which he has no inclina 

 tion. 



But with the majority of persons the inclination towards different pursuits is largely 

 modified by circumstances and surrounding conditions, or is susceptible of guidance and 

 direction under suitable influences; and the farmer who desires his boys to become farmers 

 generally has it within his power to have his wishes gratified in this respect, if he uses this 

 power judiciously and wisely. Many boys leave the farm because they are allowed so few 

 privileges. We know of farmers who make life to their sons a routine of drudgery from 

 morning till night, with scarcely any pleasures, recreation, or time at home, except to sleep 

 and eat. The everyday clothing is shabby, and the best provided for especial occasions is of 

 cheap quality, coarse, and perhaps quite ill-fitting, bearing a very unfavorable comparison 

 with that of well-dressed boys, and which no child of ordinary intelligence could fail to 

 notice. The table fare is of the coarsest and plainest food, with little variety, and the home 

 for the household devoid of ornamentations and attractions. Scarcely ever is a holiday 

 allowed for fishing or other recreation, or a little spending money ever granted. 



&quot;We know of an old farmer whose management was precisely of this description, and when 

 any of his boys chanced to earn a little money for themselves from a neighbor or stranger they 

 were obliged to give it directly to him, which he took and put in his well-worn leather wallet 

 with apparent satisfaction depicted upon his countenance, evidently considering that he was 

 bringing up his sons in the best possible way to be frugal, economical, and honest citizens. To 

 be sure, the child might be told that such money was to be laid by to help purchase him a coat, 

 shoes, or other article of wearing apparel ; but yet how much better to let the child feel that it 

 was his own property, and permit him to keep it as his own, and to let him spend a small sum 

 occasionally in purchases of his own not to allow extravagant expenditures, but to teach 

 him self-reliance, how to do business, and to let him feel that he had some rights of his 

 own, some personal possessions a feeling that would naturally stimulate him to plans of 

 action and effort for the future an ambition to do something in the world, and be some 

 body. The sons of the farmer above alluded to (every one of them) left. him as soon. as they 



