126 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



you are a good-for-nothing sloven or slattern in farmers' daughters, in Massachusetts, have gen- 

 your house-lieeping, it will drive the snow or wa-erally received a better literary education than 

 ter through the broken pane or dilapidated roof, farmers' sons; and some of them are accom- 



While fi-hing in the lake or lying under a shady 

 tree upon its banks, the wind is ever ready to 

 amuse one. Noav it stirs to myriads of iip])les, 

 running after one another over its surface, and 

 now it fans the lounger with the big branches of 

 the chestnut above his head. 



It is not always, however, that it appears as 

 master of the revels. In the character of aven- 

 ger it now and then rushes upon the stage and 

 makes its audience tremble. Wide forests are 

 instantly laid low by its irresistible yet viewless 

 arm ; dwellings torn asunder and crushed be- 

 neath its weight ; men and animals are lifted up 

 and whirled about like snow-flakes in a winter's 

 storm. So it is on the land. 



At sea its power is terrific. The ocean is lashed 

 into rolling mountains. Earth and the heavens 

 meet and mingle together in night and chaos. 

 The elementa put forth their voices, but above 

 all their horrible thunder the wind rides trium- 

 phant, and utters its trumpet summons to the 

 universal uproar of battle. It rages, it screams, 

 it shrieks. Over all other sounds the blast of 

 the invisible is heard ; and that power which is 

 the cause of the boiling of the deep, the agony 

 of the cracking ship, yet is itself forever unseen. 

 — Neicark Daily Advertiser. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 FEMALE EDUCATION.* 

 BY WILSON FLAGG. 



Thus far the education of ycung men has been 

 the principal theme of discouise, but the intel- 

 lectual improvement of the other sex must not 

 be disregarded. The interest and happiness of 

 the female sex are not to be overlooked in our 

 schemes for advancing any department of busi- 

 ness. Welfare must not be sacrificed to wealth, 

 if the two are incompatible; and it is better that 

 the farmer's crops should suffer, than the mem- 

 bers of his household. But the two things are 

 aids to one another, and the generality of pleas- 

 ant, rural homes are connected with well- culti- 

 vated farms, and he who pursues a liberal and 

 progressive system of agriculture is commonly 

 the generous father of a happy family. No man, 

 however, is likely to be a successful farmer, if his 

 wife or housekeeper be not well- instructed in all 

 that concerns domestic economy. Yet the aim 

 of our endeavors is not the training of young 

 women to be patient drudges, who are desti^ ed 

 to be farmers' wives. It is sufficient for their 

 practical education, that they gain, with habits of 

 neatness and industry, a good knowledge of house- 

 wifery and the arts of the dairy. But something 

 must be added to these qualifications, to make 

 them intelligent mothers and valuable members 

 of society, as something must be added to the 

 farmer's practical knowledge, to render him 

 useful and respectable citizen. 



It is a matter of common observation that 



* This Essay on Female Education is the Supplement to the 

 author's "Prize Essay on Agricultural Education," but wa: 

 omiifed by the Trustees in theiv publications. It is now pub 

 lished far the first time. 



plished female scholars, whose brothers are very 

 deficient in knowledge. The daughters, perceiv- 

 ing the necessity of preparing themselves for 

 some em])loyment away from home, have chosen, 

 in numerous instances, to be educa'ed for teach- 

 ing a school, while their brothers have let them- 

 selves as journeymen, to other farmers, or have 

 learned a mechanical art. We have never yet 

 observed, however, that these youi g women were 

 unfitted, by their literary acquirements, to be good 

 housekeepers ; but we have known many of the 

 young men, who, on account of their ignorance, 

 were miserable farmers. 



Useful knowledge does not foster a silly pride; 

 and though studious habits may partially inca- 

 pacitate one for labor, they do not beget idleness 

 or negligence. These are often the afli'ectations 

 of one who has the vanity to imitate the sup- 

 posed eccentricities of genius; and they are com- 

 monly oi)served in those who are wanting in na- 

 tive good sense — that intellectual jewel, which is 

 as rare as genius, and infinitely more valuable. 

 Some of the best housekeepers we have ever 

 known, surpassed all their neighbors in mental 

 cultivation, and compensated for their want of 

 physical strength by their superior management. 

 On the other hand, a farmer's daughter is often 

 disqualified for the performance of duties devolv- 

 ing upon a farmer's wife, by practising some 

 manual art that leads her into the city, or by em- 

 ployment in a factory. We are also persuaded 

 that a young man is more likely to acquire a dis- 

 taste for farming, by servir;g four years in a dry 

 goods store, than by studying four years at col- 

 lege. It is at the footstool of science that one 

 learns to venerate the pi w, while trade too of- 

 ten generates a taste only for the frivolities of 

 town life. 



No evil, we think, is likely to arise from educat- 

 ing farm.ers' girls to the highest point that is 

 compatible with their attainment of practical in- 

 formation. And it may be n marked, that as the 

 employments of women in this country are chiefly 

 within doors, there is less necessity that they 

 should possess that robust vigor, which is re- 

 quired by the labors of the other sex. The evil 

 that arises from the influence of study and other 

 sedentary occupations upon the jjhysical constitu- 

 tion, is more compatil)le with feminine than with 

 masculine occupations. It is also well known that 

 the strongest women are not the best housewives, 

 nor the strongest men the best farmers. Good 

 health and a symmetrical development of the 

 form, are of more value, in the present state of 

 society, than mere muscular strength. The pub- 

 lic are prone to consider these two qualities as 

 identical ; nothing is more common, however, 

 than to find stout, muscular people who are pre- 

 disposed to certain diseases, from which those of 

 a more slender habit are free. Even pulmonary 

 consumption is not confined to persons of infe- 

 rior muscular power; though it will not be de- 

 nied, that health and strength are to a certain 

 extent mutually dependent, and that the physical 

 powers must be cultivated by exercise, or the 

 health will decline. It is more important, how- 

 ever, to preserve the soundness of the brain and 

 the vital organs, by good air, generous living, 



