STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 159 



man past fifty years of age who has spent his life in other 

 caUings, he wants to go back for at least part of the time to a 

 farm; and after he has the farm, then he needs some man to 

 manage it. There are opportunities for men in those positions, 

 and many of them are most admirable ones so far as salaries 

 are concerned. 



But I am concerned more particularly with the opportunities 

 which the farm itself offers to the young man or the young 

 woman, and I believe there lies one of the best opportunities 

 that can be offered today in any line of effort. What does the 

 farm offer to the young man who has a taste for it? Now let 

 me say right here, that this of course goes back to that old ques- 

 tion, Should the young men leave the farms? Should they 

 follow some other calling? And let me say right at the outset 

 that I believe there is no special virtue in being a farmer. The 

 character of the man lies far and away above the calling which 

 he follows. But there are young men who may well stay on 

 the farm and there are young men who ought not to stay on the 

 farm. And first, of those who ought not to stay, there is the 

 young man with a special bent. There are boys and there are 

 girls who nearly from the time they are out of the cradle are 

 designed for some special calling in life. There is the boy who 

 has a natural talent for medicine; another one, perhaps, has a 

 natural talent for mechanics; another one for law, it may be; 

 another one possibly for commence ; those boys who have that 

 special bent for some one thing ought to follow that lead, and it 

 is a great mistake if we attempt to carry them away from it. 

 Now there is another class of boys that I believe ought not to 

 be kept on the farm, and that embraces a very large class, — the 

 boys who are willing to be led. Too many men in this world 

 are willing to be led ; few men are willing to lead. Now the 

 man who is willing to have his work blocked out for him to 

 follow some one else's lead, some one else's direction so long 

 as he lives can probably get along and get a living easier in some 

 other calling than he can on the farm. He can at least until 

 he reaches the age line late in life. The man who expects to 

 succeed in farming must lead ; he must take the reins in his 

 hands, have resourcefulness, be ready to meet emergencies when 

 they come. He must not expect to depend on some one else to 

 tell him what to do. 



