PACIFIC TREE AND VINE 



15 



Why Farmers Should be Educated. 



The question is nut whvUicr the 

 farmei' should be an educated person, 

 but whether he should have an edu- 

 cation especially adapted to his call- 

 ing. It should be conceded by all 

 that every citizen should have a good 

 general education. Everyone should 

 know that North and South America 

 are connected by a narrow i.«5thnius; 

 everyone should know that the Amer- 

 icans were assisted in their struggle 

 for liberty by a brave young French- 

 man named La Payette. These and 

 various like items go to make up an 

 elementary education which every per- 



t'armei- with no qualidcations what- 

 ever. 



Adam was a farmer, and the earth 

 gave him plenty, with but little exer- 

 tion of his mental powers. What is 

 true of him is still true if one's wants 

 are no more numerous than his. One 

 can have an existence in a dug-out, 

 grow a few potatoes, raise a pig or 

 two, and be called a farmer. But the 

 time is here when, whatever occupation 

 you enter into you must be educated. 

 One of the most important occupations 

 is farming. Without the farm, or 



ather what is raised on the farm, man 

 and beast could not live. 



are yet some who sneer at the sugges- 

 tion that a college education helps a 

 farmer. How do they account for the 

 fact that agriculture has kept step 

 with educational advancement, not only 

 in this country but throughout the 

 civilized world? 



By college education for farmers, we 

 mean more particularly agriculture col- 

 lege education, though any kind of col- 

 lege helps one to farm just as It helps 

 in any other business. Why should not 

 an education, especially In the scien- 

 ces, help the farmer? He has to deal 

 with scientific questions daily, whether 

 he has any knowledge of such laws. 





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son needs. But our question goes be- 

 yond that and wants to know whether 

 the farmer should have besides that, 

 such special knowledge and training 

 as belong to his occupation? No one 

 questions but that the physician should 

 have a special education. Indeed, the 

 law requires that he be put through 

 a certain course of instruction before 

 it will allow him to compound medi- 

 cines Neither do you allow a man 

 to practice law until he is familiar 

 with Blackstone. Kent, Parsons and 

 Bourier. Even with mechanics, only 

 a suitable apprenticeship will admit 

 me to membership in the trades union. 

 But a man may be a voter, juror or 



Now, since farming is of so much 

 importance, certainly the farmer 

 should have an education, because, 

 without an education the farmer would 

 be continually cheated and would not 

 know how to manage affairs. Without 

 education men would not know how 

 to use the new machinery that is com- 

 ing in general use, and when any- 

 thing goes wrong they would not know 

 how to fix it themselves. Without an 

 educatfcn the farmers could not raise 

 crops to best advantage. With edu- 

 cation farmers could sell their crops 

 to the best advantage. They could 

 lead newspapers and see what other 

 people get for their crops. But there 



But -.1 special agriculture education is 

 what every farmer needs, and if an ad- 

 dition to his classical and sclentiflc 

 education so much the better. — Far- 

 mers Call. 



The Bee and the Hen. 

 "A queen bee, " sa'd Deacon Blimber, 

 "lays from two thousand to three thou- 

 s-and eggs in less than a week, and 

 don't say a word about it; but when 

 Ihat old speckled hen o' mme drops 

 her one little stub-endid yaller egg in 

 the niornin', she stri'ts around and hol- 

 lers like a house afire, and snubs the 

 >vhole face of a'l creation, as If she 

 owned the earth — and that bee and 

 that old hen is a good deal like some 

 human folks." 



