THE FAKMER AND HIGHER EDUCATION. 207 



cern their Bons and daughters as farmers to be. I have looked into the faces of the 

 young men gathered into our halls of higher education and have seen there the 

 flash of intellect, and there has risen before me a vivid conception of the possibili- 

 ties before them, if they may give themselves to the years of toil and culture. 

 Here is one who has in him the powers of an orator, a logician, a sculptor, a chem- 

 ist, a metaphysician or mechanic. He naturally asks himself : How long shall I 

 be in college? I am going back to the farm again, therefore but little of this study 

 concerns me. Thus he has caught and reflects the spirit of which we have spoken, 

 that the higher education does not concern the farmer's son who expects to farm. 

 On what ground does he thus practically exclude from the farm the drilled intel- 

 lect and the cultured mind and the sagacious spirit — the best powers of manhood ? 

 Is not the farm worthy of such men, and does our country not need such men on 

 the farm? 



This question is often .isked the teacher: Why is it that these young men who 

 enter the college halls go out any thing but farmers? The answer is brief: Because 

 the farmer father gives his stalwart, big-souled son, who intends to farm, no en- 

 couragement to seek the higher education that brings him moral and intellectual 

 power. And such a son accepts the logic of his sire and only learns its weakness 

 when too late to remedy it. 



Another phase of the farmers' attitude toward the higher education is more 

 hopeful and prophetic of the future. He does value the higher training for the 

 sake of his children who intend to enter the professions. If he has a son who is 

 depraved, or one not particularly bright, and who hates all toil, he is inclined to 

 send him off" to college that he may become a lawyer, a doctor or a third-rate 

 preacher. He recognizes that in all other lines of work, except farming, an educa- 

 tion is of real value in obtaining the highest success. And yet for precisely the 

 same reasons that the higher education makes the workman more competent in the 

 varied walks of life does it make the farmer better qualified to find the best in his 

 calling. Consider — 



Second. The farmer's need of a higher education. The farmer is in need of the 

 higher education — the disciplined mind and a larger amount of information — as a 

 means of self-protection. The farmer in whose brain, in whose heart, in whosi soul, 

 are lodged the best possibilities of our civilization and generation, will be able to 

 defend himself and his against the sharks and humbugs which so often entangle 

 him, when he brings to his farm life the culture of severer thought. What he 

 wants is ability disciplined, and knowledge widened, until he is able to measure 

 arms, forecast results, and thwart the purposes of his unscrupulous foe. He wants 

 to be drilled so that he may be able to meet the drilled intellect of the knave on 

 the road, of the scoundrel on the street corner, and of him who enters his parlor to 

 court his fair and favorite daughter. 



The farmer needs the drilled intellect and disciplined mind in order to elevate 

 his profession and to master the art and science of his vocation. The farmer's oc- 

 cupation is both a science and an art, a science in that it has to do with soil and 

 seed and reason, an art in that much that he does may be a delight to the eye, a 

 stimulus to the imagination and taste. Such a farmer's barn will not be in front 



