The Cecil Whig

North East, Cecil county, Md.

will it Pay.

This is the great question of the day Every body asks 'will it pay?' before entering upon any pursuit, or even duty. Even ministers expect their profession to pay well, to yield a rich reward for the labor bestowed. Some do not expect a full reward in dollars and cents, but they do in virtue, religion, peace, happiness. If a man holds an office, he expects it will "pay" in some sense. If it does not in goods, at least, in honor, mental profit, or good done to others. We ought not to do anything that does not pay, and pay well. All our labors should yield a good profit. The great trouble with men is that they do so many things that do not pay: What man in his senses believes that lying, cheating, gambling, drinking, swearing, rowdying, rioting, reveling gluttony, meanness, debauchery, tyranny, idleness, folly, vanity, pride, and such like, ever pay well? These are the things that do not pay. And the more of them a man does and has, the poorer he is: the less real pay he gets.

We believe of all things, nothing pays better than a judicious, proper education. It pays in mental and moral strength, pays in executive ability, in judgement, foresight, intelligence, besides paying well in money. Intelligence on a farm is just as essential to triumphant success as in the pulpit, at the bar, or in the legislative hall. It is true, that a less degree of intelligence will raise corn, wheat, potatoes, but for all the uses of the farmer it is quite as important as in any vocation. In the application of chemistry to the improvement of agriculture; in applying physiology to breeding and rearing stock; in adopting machinery to the various uses of labor; in studying and discovering the various characteristic of fruits, grasses, grains, vegetables; in preserving the natural strength of the soil, in discriminating the qualities of soil and their adaptation to the various products of the farm; in the application of the principles of economy to every department of the productive industry of the farm: indeed in every possible way, is superior intelligence as useful on the farm as any where else. To secure such intelligence, education is essential One must be educated to be thoroughly intelligent. It is true some educate themselves on the farm: their minds are ever active in the pursuit of the knowledge they need. But the most must be educated by books, schools, teachers and experiments, to be thoroughly intelligent. Now the ground we take is, that the education of young men and women for the pursuit of farm life is just as important as their education for teachers, or for any profession or position. We do not believe in educating the boys and not the girls for the pursuits of farm life. Every farmer wants a wife as intelligent as himself. We believe that "Lettie Hasfield," and such as she is, are of incalculably more use on a farm than a woman entirely ignorant of her duties. Go into her house, or upon any good farmer's farm: and the truth that intelligence pays on a farm, would be established at once. Let the farming community awake to the interests of agricultural education.—Valley Farmer.