18 



GENESEE FARMEK 



Jan. 



The Farmer. -"Hi;s Position, liespisibiUties, 

 and Duties. 



NUMBER FIVE. 



Thk District School System is one of the dis- 

 tinguishing features of tlie New World. Its 

 adaptatien and fitness for the country, and the 

 almost irfiperutive necessity in view of our polit- 

 ical iEstitutions and their perpetuity, renders ev- 

 ■ery thing connected with it of decided interest 

 and iraportatice. It is said that the Ancient 

 Egyptians inscribed on their Libraries "Reme- 

 dies for the diseases of the Soul;" and so might 

 we write over the door posts of our School Hous- 

 es, remedies for, and preventives of, diseases in 

 the body politic, and promoters of the morality, 

 good order, and safety of society. As New 

 Yorkers, we may justly feel prouiid of our edu- 

 cational advantages— and, as patriots and philan- 

 thropists, we are bound to cherish and labor to 

 improve and elevate them. 



Education is one of those indefinite terms 

 which admit of almost any latitude. In its real 

 and true signification, it is a progressive and nev- 

 er-ending work. The whole liie-time of man is 

 but a movement onward, and it is perhaps safest 

 to believe the elevated and beautiful idea that 

 throughout all eternity, man will continue to in- 

 crease in knowledge and advance in wisdom. — 

 But it is not in this broad view that I now pro- 

 pose to regard the term Education. I will define 

 it for present porposes, as a disciplinary process, 

 fitting the mind for the business of life ; not only 

 the accumulation of knowledge and intelligence, 

 ■but the acquisition of habits of order, industry 

 and economy, in proportion for the active duties 

 ^nd responsibilities of life. This work belongs 

 ■to the school-room ; there the boy is to be pre- 

 {)ared for man-hood. In pi-ocess of time nature 

 will develops the full capacity of tlie physical 

 .system, but the mind is not made of thesame 

 material, and cannot alone come to its full 

 strength and capacity. Its food and nourishment 

 is made of different matter than that which feeds 

 and invigorates the body ; it must have the aid 

 of other minds — must have facts and figures, ar- 

 bitrary rules, and distinct principles, and obtain 

 them not by instinct, but by hard study, severe 

 thinking, and the rigid application of the mental 

 faculties. 



The school book, the school house, and the 

 school master, are these important requisites in 

 training the mind and in bringing out its power 

 and energy. Mind, like the body, is the work 

 of the great Architect, it is the gift of God, and 

 may and does exist in all its glory and majesty, 

 in the poor man as in the rich ; it knows no dis- 

 tinction, only in its means of devdjpment, and in 

 its educational polish. Then how glorious to edu- 

 cate all the i)eople — how high and solemn tlie duty 

 to give to all the advantages of mental culture. 



The district school belongs, emphatically to ' 

 the masses ; they are the people's schools ; they 

 know no caste, nor recognize no distinction, but 

 broadly unfold their beautiful panoply and cover 

 all alike, and say without respect to person, or 

 condition, "come and partake of my benefits." 

 God has given thee Mind; ours isthe duty to unfold 

 the power, and prepare for systematic and useful 

 action, this richest and mightiest of God's gifs. 



It is the highest glory and proudest boast of 

 the Empire State, that she has thus provided a 

 system for the education of her children. Right- 

 ly does she judge, and wisely act, when she 

 thus provides for the safety of herself and the el- 

 evation of her peoi)le. And have the. Farmers 

 no interest in this matter ? Yes, they have, 

 most of all ; for they are more numerous thsn 

 all other classes. The district school is truly, 

 almost exclusively their own; it is to most of 

 them their only school, and it behooves them to 

 look well to these seminaries, so peculiarly their 

 own. Their childen, nine out of ten, if not 

 ninety-nine out of every hundred, will be educa- 

 ted in them, for they have no where else to go. 

 Then let the district school be elevated, improved, 

 and made what it should and may be. And as 

 one improvement, almost indispensably necessa- 

 ry to the formers, tb.ere should be, and must be, 

 a department devoted to Agriculture. I can dis- 

 cover no reason why it should not form a regu- 

 lar branch of Common School Education — nor 

 why every College and Academy in the State, 

 should not have their professorship department, 

 devoted to Agriculture, as a distinct branch cf 

 study and education. Is there any thing in the 

 subject which precludes this 1 Is there any dif- 

 ficulty in reducing to a regular science, and of 

 so arranging and classifying its different branch- 

 es, as to permit it being made a part of the edu- 

 cational process of the young ? I think not ; 

 but on the contrary, Agriculture is a science, 

 possessing, in all its ramifications, distinctive 

 features — is governed by fixed facts and unerring 

 principles — which the young farmer should 

 learn, by study and close api)l!cation of his men- 

 tal faculties. They should be engraven on his 

 mind, when it is young and plastic, and capable 

 of receiving and reiaining impressions, and this 

 subject may, I imagine, be introduced into every 

 district school in tlie State, without any detri- 

 ment to the branches now taught in those schools, 

 and without interfering with the regular course 

 of common school education. 



Much reflection has satisfied my own mind of 

 the great importance of the subject. I regard 

 it as an essential step towards the elevation of the 

 fixrming interests — a necessary ingredient in lift- 

 ing up to their real position the farmers of this 

 country. The State has been beneficent in her 

 school funds ; but the farmer has not as yet had 

 his full share of the benefits accruing from them. 

 He has been content to look on listlessly, and let 



