266 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
value. Unconscious thinking is at best but a sort of revery, of 
no more value than a dream. 
And further, the process of study is too exhaustive if followed 
-closely to admit any further exhaustion in physical labor, partic¬ 
ularly when demanded in that period of life when growth is also 
making large demands upon the system. Such a course makes 
both work and study an unremitting drudgery which soon begets 
a hearty distaste for both. It is estimated that four hours of 
study exhaust the physical system as much as ten hours of labor, 
and less than four hours of study per day would not suffice to 
keep up a healthy interest in the class room. There may be 
cases in which an ambitious youth has studied as though he did 
not work, and worked as though he did not study, but if he suc¬ 
ceeded in either, it was because the circumstances under which he 
was placed were so peculiar that no general rule can be deduced 
from his experience. This mastery of muscle which confers skill 
must be given at home on the farm, especially during the years 
of boyhood, and physical labor be omitted, except incidentally, 
■during the months devoted to study. 
The economy which most farmers are obliged to practice for¬ 
bids this attempt to combine manual with intellectual labor, as by 
.so doing the time during which the services of the student are lost, 
as well as heavy expenses incurred, is more or less extended. 
The time spent in getting an education is so much time taken from 
productive manual industry. While the head is at work, the 
hands are idle, and strict economy requires that this unproductive 
period be reduced to the lowest practicable limit; it is certainly 
bad policy to extend it, for any merely temporary advantage. 
Aside from the necessary distraction of attention, the student la¬ 
bors at a disadvantage. The result of education is invariably to 
-enhance the value of educated labor, as the wages of the skilled 
workman are always higher than those of the mere laborer. A 
.-student is obliged to dispose of his labor at the lowest rate, while, 
after his education is completed, he receives remuneration for his 
skill as well as his labor, and it is manifestly bad policy to post¬ 
pone this latter period for any meagre immediate return. 
But not only is the time spent at school to be taken from pro¬ 
ductive manual industry, but most farmers’ sons while getting 
