NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



399 



HINTS TO SCHOOLMASTERS. 



Under this head, a correspondent of the Advertiser 

 has the following remai-ks, which are well worthy of 

 attention : — 



" Be not sarcastic. Some teachers have a natural 

 tendency to say things which cut through a boy's 

 heart like a knife. A scholar makes some mistakes ; 

 instead of a simple reproof comes a tone of ridicule. 

 The boy feels wronged. One is stung into revengeful 

 passion, another crushed with despair. I do not think 

 a child should ever be mimicked, even for a drawling 

 tone, without explaining beforehand that it is not for 

 ridicule, but to show in what the fault consists ; while 

 the scorching sarcasm which some teachers use should 

 be wholly abolished. It tends to call up bad passions, 

 and to engender bad feelings in the child's mind to- 

 ■WiU'ds the teacher and all that he does. 



" A teacher, in order that he may exert a moral and 

 spiritual intiuencc, should be familiar and gentle. 

 There is, no doubt, a dignity that is essential in the 

 school-room, but it need not partake of arrogance. 

 True dignity must always be connected with sim- 

 plicity. Children are keen observers, and they either 

 shrink from artificial austerity, or smile at it as absurd. 

 A teacher who would walk about his school, with 

 a duminecring manner, might talk about moral and 

 spiritual truth until he was weary, and do little good. 

 To produce much good, a teacher must win the love 

 and confidence of the children ; and to do this, he 

 should, in his manners, be natural and gentle. 



" So with the tone of the voice. If a teacher is 

 sharp and crabbed in his speech, if he calls out with 

 dogmatical authority, he shuts up the hearts of the 

 scholars, and the spell is broken ; — they will not 

 listen to the voice of the charmer, charm he never so 

 wisely. 



" A subdued manner, and a low, kind tone, will 

 work wonders. Some always speak in the imperative 

 mood. ' Fifth boy, second division, bring your book 



this way.' Another says, ' Master A , will you 



bring me your book r ' 



" Now, both boys know they are to obey ; but one 

 does with some degree of scorn what the other does 

 cheerfully. Who would not rather be asked than 

 ordered r " 



POULTRY EXHIBITION AT WATERVILLE. 



The exhibition of poultry at Waterville, on the 

 20th inst., was, we are informed, on the whole, even 

 more successful than those who planned it and carried 

 it out had anticipated. The weather was favorable. 

 The number of fowls exhibited was between five and 

 six liundrcd, arranged in a little less than one hun- 

 dred apartments. The most of the improved varieties 

 ■were represented. The Waterville Mail, in speaking 

 of this exhibition, saj-s, " We have nearly forgotten 

 the beautiful Bantam, the graceful Dorking, the pretty 

 Top-knot, and the stately Spanish ; and now we look 

 for tiie Shanghae, the Cochin China, the Chittagong, 

 the (ircat Malay, the Spangled Hamburg, the Silver 

 Phea>ant, and, lastly, the Wild Indian Game Fowl. 

 Wc have here all the former, and who shall say how 

 many of the latter? Wc believe all but the Chitta- 

 gong and Wild Indian. We have all colors, from tlie 

 pure white to the ctjually pure black ; and all sizes, 

 from one pound to ten. We have geese and ducks, 

 turkeys and hens, enclosed in as great a variety of 

 coops as can be found between Phcrnix building and 

 Ticonic bridge. The attendance is good, and the ex- 

 hibition will do much, without doubt, to advance the 

 interest so generally felt in improving the stock of 

 fowls." 



As we were not present on the occasion, we arc 



unable to give an extended or particular notice of the 

 various fowls exhibited. A correspondent, who wa.s 

 present, has furnished us with a very full and inter- 

 esting account of this exhibition ; but owing to a press 

 of other matter, we are obliged to defer its publica- 

 tion until next week. — Maine Farmer, Nov. 28. 



LABOR IS HONORABLE, 



As the cultivation of the soil is the most ancient 

 of all employments, so it is the most dignified and 

 honorable ; for it was ordained by the Almighty him- 

 self. Yet an idea appears to be commcn in our coun- 

 try that it is more respectable to live by one's wits 

 than by the labor of his hands. Huw many fond 

 parents do we hear expressing the iope that their 

 smart sons may become something more than a 

 "plough-jogger," or a mechanic ! How many young 

 men crowd the professions of law and medicine who 

 might be more usefully employed in tilling the soil 1 

 How many, every year, repair to our towns and cities, 

 anxious to exchange the manly labors of agriculture 

 for the effeminate employment of measuring tape and 

 calico ! The idea that labor is not respectable has 

 doubtless been handed down from the ages of feudid 

 barbarism, when the only laborers vere slaves, and 

 labor Avas in consequence degraded ; when the only 

 honorable men were the soldiers and priests, and the 

 only honorable employments those of cutting men's 

 throats and emptying their pockets; and it is kept 

 alive at the present day by the depressed condition 

 of the laboring classes in other countries, and by the 

 institution of slavery in our own. Some jicople ap- 

 pear to think that a man of talent and education is 

 entirely out of his element in the business of farm- 

 ing. I'he idea that such persons have of the educa- 

 tion of a farmer, is aptly illustrated by a remark I 

 once heard from an old backwoodsman in this state. 

 In reply to some one who was boarting of the money 

 he had paid for the education of his children, the old 

 man remarked that he had four sor.s, w'hose education 

 had not cost him a doUar ; " yet," said he, " they 

 can shoot a bar and make as good a crop of corn na 

 any boys that have been sent to school." A good 

 education is as important in agricultural pursuits, as 

 in the professions usually called learned ; as though 

 the skill necessary for the proper management of a 

 farm, and a knowledge of the laws of vegetation, — 

 laws which God himself has established, — do not 

 better deserve the name of learning than an acquaint- 

 ance with the antiquated forms of law, a hundred 

 years behind the age ; or the shutHing, evasion, and 

 quibble that characterize a largo portion of the law 

 practice of our land ; — as though the farmer who 

 properly mixes a heap of compost manure does not 

 exercise as much science and skill as the doctor who 

 compounds his pills and his sirups ; to say nothing 

 of the superior Utility of the article. An intelligent 

 and well-educated farmer is as much entitled to the 

 appellation of learned as tlie practitioner of any other 

 profession. liCt the working-men of our jiopulation 

 receive the education that they oiight to have, and 

 wliich they would have if our civil and social insti- 

 tutions were what they ought to be, and they will 

 command tluit respect to whicli the dignity and im- 

 portance of their employments entitle them. 



But it is not alone in a professional point of view 

 that education is important to our laboring popula- 

 tion. In our country they are the depositaries of 

 political power ; and upon their virtue and intelli- 

 gence depends the prosperity of our republican in- 

 stitutions. Ignorance is a si)ccies of slavery, and a 

 population wlioUy uneducated, though profes.sing 

 political rights, would be ahnost completely under 



