VOL. LIV.
INDIANAPOLIS, IND., FEB. 11, 1899.
NO. 6
Agriculture in the Common Schools.
Editobs Indiana Fabheb.
You asked sometime ago for opinions on
this topic. I then thought, as you now see,
that but few would reply. The fact is the
farmer is not, ss a class, interested in the
common schools. And why ehould he be?
He has no more voice in the schools any
more than if he lived in the land of Nod!
Our schools are in the hands of a few, and
sorry to say, many of the few are men of
questionable principles, to gay the least.
Could the farmer have a voice in the selecting
and employing of teachers, and the managing of his schools, then he would become interested In them. Does the farmer want ag-
griculture taught in the common schools?
No, not one In 50; and the one that expresses
himself in favor of it, is usually a politician
or has a friend that is, or is a man that jumps
his conclusions out without thought. Now
friends, you who ask for this, stop a moment
and look at it from all sides. As Dr. Smart
says the curriculum is already too full! Then
think of the difficulty of getting teachers who
can add anything to what the average farmer's
10 year old boy and girl already knows. As
it ie, our better teachers refuse to teach under
preeent management and pay. It woulk be
still worse if more is added. But suppose we
raise the wages and get a teacher that is able
to give some proper instruction, if it did not
accord with the father's ideas the child would
not take well to it, and the father would ridicule the teacher; or If he was an honest man
and wanted his son to have proper notions in
regard to farming, he would tell him to let
the teacher's farming alone; and the boy
would lose confidence in his teacher, and
soon come to think he knew as much as he
did anyhow. No my friend, to get a teacher
that can give profitable instruction; and satisfy his patrons, would be almoet an impossibility. Where a man has practical knowledge
enough to be a profitable teacher, and at the
eame time be able to teach successfully, the
curriculum as it now is, he would not care to
teach in the public schools; certainly not for
the wages now offered. To undertake it with
incompetent teachers would only subject the
whole matter, as well as the schools, to ridicule. It is not only desired by the mass of
farmers, but it is wrong ln principle, and
would not 6tand under the search light of our
common constitution. Why not teach mechanics? Why not law, medicine, theology?
These branches are as legitimate as agriculture. Here Is a man who has a son tbat will
be a mechanic; there is one that will be a law.
yer; here is another that will be a ministerof
the gospel, and still another that will be a
phyeician. Now these men have the eame
right to demand that theee professions be
taught in the common schools ae the fanner
hae that agriculture be taught. Now suppose
we introduce all of them, and and have a university in each school district in the State; or
eay one in each township, or at least one In
each county.
The common echool ie not the place to teach
your child a profeeeion. or even an education
for the thing iteelf, but a place to develop
mind force while the body ie developing, and
thue grow into the soul of the child whle it is
plastic and being developed. Aepiratiqns of
patriotism and love; love for God, for home
for country, and with all, a love for good
books. There is no place for a profession in
the common schools, unless you wieh to ruin
your child's mind, dwarf his soul, and make
him a ready prey for the evil one; his sordid
mind seeking companionship in sensational
and depraved literature, and his depraved eoul
being unfortified with that for which it wae
created falle a victim to every vice and ein.
If in our haste to be rich we outrun our religious and literary institutions they will
never overtake us, or only come  up after the
battle of liberty is fought and lost, as spoils to
grace the victory. I would rather have my
child come to me at 15 years, thoroughly imbued with love for God, home, country and
for the study of good books, than to have him
able to repeat all that is taught in the school
curriculum from memory. It is very few abstract facts that the child covers up from
childhood to man or womanhood. But the
character that is formed during childhood usually remains through life, both natural and
eternal. I want to reiterate what I have so
often affirmed, that if our ministers were all
pious men, and we would install them in the
school rooms, and put the present teachers in
the pulpit, civilization would advance much
faBter, and religion in the long run would not
be the loser.
No, my farmer friend, it is not a profession
your boy needs. There is something else first.
You have tried hard to teach him to be a
farmer and perhaps been kind to him and
treated him well, as you thought. You have
been trying ever so hard to fill his head, and
so hard that you forgot or neglected his soul.
It is empty, swept and garnished. You don't
see it, but he feels it. Like an incubus it
weighs him down. As he goes around over
the farm at his labors, and about the barn at
his chores or the house for his meals and reet,
he feele the emptiness. Surely he thinks when
he goes to school he will find rest and congeniality, but his companions are like him
self, filled to repletion with thiB hurydrum of
head and hand work, but nothing for the soul
So it, in the plinitude of its pleadings, and
its unbearable emptiness seeks for relief and
takes into its confidence seven other spirits
[boys] more wicked than himself, and they
all enter and dwell there and their souls are
full of hate for the old farm. And he, perhaps, eecretly procures just euch reading ae he
knows you and mother would not allow him
to read, and thus in your effort to develop his
head and body you have so dwarfed his eoul
that he will soon complete its ruin, and instead of going out into the world a finiehed
business man, one of the nobles of God's creators, he goes down to the land of Lodebar to
proclaim his life a failure, as he ekes out his
soulless existence in this land of no posture.
Even say the soul could be developed and
agriculture taught too. Truo it might, but it
would be like trying to build a fire with wet
wood. It is not more wood that is wanted,
but more ventilation. It is not agriculture or
horticulture that the farmers' boy or girl
hankers after, but city culture! If the parents
and school oflicers would contrive to give the
children from country schools a few days or a
week in the city each year, say from 12 to 15
yeare old, showing them all the eights, the
theatre and saloons included, and then the
shadows behind which hide so many disappointments, and failures, and which fall to
hide the many deeds of depravity and Ein to
which the country Homo is a stranger, it
would do more to make them love home and
the farm than all the agriculture that you
could cram Into them at school, and it would
help the echool too. I'. W. Cokya.
Jefferson Oo.
The sewing machine received all right.
Will say that it is a perfect worker and we
wonder how a first-class machine can be man
ufactured and sold at the low price of $15.
Putnam Oo. S. H. Jcdy.
The Farmer sewing machine received some
time since has been thoroughly tested, and in
justice to it will say it has filled every point
described in your paper, and even more. It
has more fixtures and runs better than a machine for which I paid $50 and was long
since worn out. Farmers who want a good
article for $15, send for this one, you will not
regret it. Jxo. S. Lakosk.
Loganeport.
Letter From China.
Editors Indiana Fakheb.
Perhaps I could not more vividly portray
that phaee of missionary life In China—itineration—than by rehearsing a trip recently
made by one of our missionaries; a single
lady.
She started on a Wednesday with a Mrs. Abbey of another mission, and her Bible woman. All rode donkeye, and an extra donkey
carried the provisions, cooking utensils and
bedding. At the city gate the boy with the
extra donkey, complained of too much load,
and they engaged another donkey. After
again starting, the new donkey boy refused to
take the customary price and began to unload, but Mrs. Abbe, knowing their peculiarities, remained firm, and he finally yielded and
went along. They selected a secluded spot by
the roadside for dinner, but soon 30 odd people gathered to witness the curious spectacle.
Mrs. Abbey discovered she bad left her knife,
fork and spoon at home, so they used one set
in common. They preached to the crowd,
and then went on, reaching a chapel and
Christian family at 3 30 p. m. A number of
women called on them while we were trying
to get settled. That night they preached in
the chapel. The women succeeded in getting
nearest the front, but men and boys crowded
the rear.
The next day they made a tour of farm villages. At tho firet house they borrowed a
bench to Bit on while they preached. Some
eight women and one man gathered around
In the narrow side street of another village a
sturdy looking young man said, "We don't
want to hear the "Jesus' doctrine," but a
crowd soon gathered and they preached. The
young man stood listening in the door while
he ate hie bowl of rice, and made no further
protest. They preached at another part of
the village, where women were winnowing
rice on a hard ground threshing floor. At the
end of the village, the road passed through a
sort of rest house. Here seated on a stone
bench, they preached to 40 or 50 people.
These people were more bold, touching their
dress, and shoes, and asking how they could
keep warm, if they oiled their hair, and how
they could tell whether a foreign woman was
married or single. One man said there was
no God, else those who cursed heaven would
be punished. This was the firet atheist among
the Chinese Mre. Abbey had met. They
preached at three other villages, and returned
a little weary. Neither the oil stove nor the
eteam cooker would work. They found two
bowls broken, and besides a hungry cat had
gotten half of a roast of chicken. They
finally got supper, and preached in the chapel
again.
On Friday, they were glad to find some
women who remembered what Mrs. Abbey
had told them the year before. Extreme
thirst compelled them to stop at a village tea
house, but the crowd became so great that
they hurriedly drank their tea and moved on,
for fear of offending the proprietor. That
night, they stopped at the cleanest Chinese
inn they had ever seen. Their bed was of
boards laid on benches and covered with
loose straw. Their every movement was
watched by as many pair of black eyes as
their were appertures.
On Saturday, when they went off the main
traveled road, the crowd nearly picked them
to pieces. One woman thought their hats
the funniest of all, and asked why they had
pins in them. The crowd made so much
noUe, all three preached at the eame time,
but without gaining much attention. That
night, their room had no window save an
8x10 glass in the roof. The walls had been collecting the dust of ages. The cobwebs looked
clean in comparison. They talked to groups
of women, but the crowds of boisterous men
and boys wae only driven away by the city
officer, who wanted the ladies to promise to
depart the next day. They told him lt wag
"worship day," but he replied, "Well, we
don't worship here, eo that don't make any
difference." They told him they worshipped
wherever they were, and it made a difference.
The Bible woman wanting to help matters
along, said, "This one lady camo last year.
This year there are two, and I don't know how
many there will be next year." The officer
tried to persuade the landlord not to keep ue.
but failed. Then he wanted them to promieo
not to go on the street next day, but they said
they would certainly would go out if it did
not rain. He then sent two soldiers, who
guarded them until they left tho city.
On Monday they left tho road again and
found the farming peoplo more courteous.
The villages were close together with very
few Isolated houses. Tho people listened
very respectfully. All wero mourning the exceedingly dry weather. Tho ground could
not be prepared for wheat, except by pumping water from ponds. This makes great additional labor, being done by men treading
windlasses and reduces the acreage sown.
The wheat is sown in rows with trenches left
for water if necessary. At harvest time it Is
cut by the handful with tho small ancient
sickle. Two crops a year, wheat and rice are
gathered from the same ground. The women
commented on one of the ladies being twenty-
nine years old and still unmarried,
having previously politely asked how
many sons ehe had. Mrs. Abbey kindly
explained to them that foreign girls were not
engaged when small, but left to grow up and
choose whom they pleased. Some women
were so hopeless when told of a Savior who
could lead them to heaven that they said
"euch happiness ie not for me." One opium-
smoking woman, quite intelligent, could not
believe Jesus could save her from the opium,
but afterwards walked nearly two miles on her
tiny feet to tho inn to talk further about it.
On Tuesday, they did not travel far to reach
eight vllliages. The land must be very productive. The trees were very pretty in tlieir
autumn tints, although not to compare with
the foreign maple. There wae always an outline of high hills in tho distance, though all
about were rice fields divided by mud dykes.
Fences are UDknown except an occasional
hedge along' the road, never between fields.
That evening the women were quite communicative, and one in au unguarded moment,
epoke of foreigners as " foreign devels." The
woman at her side gave her a violent nudge,
and the others sounded a note of disapproval.
The next day they reached their home. Oh,
how clean everything looked! The clean table-cloth and dishes and bouquet of chrysanthemums seemed luxurious. The bed looked
so spotleee and the room almostpalatial. They
fervently thanked God for it all.
Lucheofu via Wuhu, China.    O. B. Titus.
FARMERS' INSTITUTES FOR 1899.
Frankfort, Clinton county, D. F. Clark,
Mulberry, Feb. 6th,  71h—McMahan,   Collins.
Lebanon, Boone county, R. J. Riner, Advance, Feb. 8th, Oth—McMahan, Collins.
New Augusta, Marion county, W. B. Flick,
Lawrence, Feb. 10th, llth—McMahan, Plumb.
 Miami county, H. W. Pearson, Peru;
Feb. Gth, 7th,—Johnson, JenkinB.
Plymouth, Marshall county, J. V. VanGil-
der, Plymouth, Feb. Sth, 9th,—Johnson, Jenkins.
Goshen, Elkhart county, John Scranage,
Goshen, Feb. 10th, llth,—Johnson,  Jenkins.
Anderson, Madison county, I. B.' Jones,
Pendleton, February 13th, 14th.—Billingsley,
Mrs. Erwin.
Mooresville, Morgan county, D. B. Johnson, Mooresville, February 15th, 16th, 17th.—
Billingsley, Mrs. Erwin, Prof. W. O. Latta.
I have  received  my machine and am well
pleased with it. Lux* Wilit.