l6o STATD POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



There are some boys who, I beheve, ought to stay on the 

 farm, and that is, first of all, the boy who loves the farm. 

 There are such boys, and let me say right here, that I believe 

 there would be far more such boys but for the parents' misap- 

 prehensions. As a teacher in agricultural college work, over 

 and over again have I met this situation ; a father or a mother 

 comes to an institution with a son, or perhaps with a daughter, 

 and they express themselves something like this : I want my 

 boy to do something where he can get his living easier than I 

 have got mine. That father thinks that farming is the hardest 

 calling, that something else will be much easier. It is but 

 natural. We all see the bright side of the other man's occupa- 

 tion, because we cannot see behind his door to see the unpleasant 

 things. Concerning him we can see the bright side. Perhaps 

 we see too plainly the unpleasant things which concern us and 

 we overlook to a certain extent the blessings which we find in 

 our own calling. But, I say, there are boys who love the farm, 

 and those boys ought to stay there, because the opportunities 

 are as good as at any other calling, I believe. 



Then there is another large class of boys who I think may well 

 stay on the farm, that is, the boys who may interest themselves 

 in anything. That embraces, I suppose, by far the larger class. 

 It is the exceptional boy, the fortunate boy I may say, who 

 knows just what he wants to do. The most of us had to grope 

 around and flounder about to try to find out what we were good 

 for, and perhaps we never found out. The most of boys can 

 interest themselves in anything. You put them at a machine, 

 they become interested in it; put them at the study of a plant 

 and they become interested in that; the study of an animal, 

 mathematics, language — the bright, intelligent boy will interest 

 himself in anything. Now we may well show to that type of 

 boy the opportunities which the farm offers. And what are 

 some of those opportunities? 



In the first place, it offers the opportunity for healthful 

 employment. Over and over again do men as they come along 

 late in life find their health failing, and some of our most suc- 

 cessful farmers are men who have been driven late in life to the 

 farm by failing health, obliged to get out from some calling. 

 It is hard work. Anything is hard work which succeeds. But 



