196 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



lying idle at the present time. What we need most is young 

 men with a liking for the business of farming, and a desire to 

 help build up the agricultural interests of the state of Maine. 

 The young men must be equipped with a thorough practical 

 business training, and a knowledge of the work they are to do. 

 In other words, they must learn the business of farming. 



The young man who has a liking for dairying and a desire 

 to grow up and develop a valuable, profitable herd of dairy 

 cows, must remember that it will require years of study and 

 hard work to complete that task, but it has been done, and will 

 continue to be done by men with a determination to do things. 

 There is something more needed in this work. These young 

 men must have some money to work with. 



What has been the condition in our state in years past? A 

 great many farmers by working early and late, and denying 

 themselves and their families every comfort, have saved a few 

 hundred dollars, or possibly a thousand or two. What has be- 

 come of this money? Has it gone to build up a better herd of 

 cattle? to build a silo? to underdrain the land, or add com- 

 forts to the farm home? No; in the majority of cases it has 

 gone to the savings bank to receive a dividend of 3 1-2 or 4 

 per cent., eventually to go west or south and be invested in 

 some great enterprise in some other section of the country. 

 Under such conditions could one expect or even ask a bright, 

 able young man to take up a business that his own father did 

 not have confidence enough in to invest his hard earned dollars 

 in promoting and building up that business. 



But the scene has changed, and today we see scattered over 

 this grand old state of Maine, happy, prosperous farm homes 

 managed by men who have had confidence in their business; 

 men who have found out that farming is a business, and in 

 order to get something out one must put something in. What 

 has brought a:bout this change? In a majority of cases a son 

 has taken hold with the father on the home farm, or has bought 

 a farm of his own, and with the aid of new ideas and better 

 business methods has brought the business up to a point where 

 a dividend can be declared on the amount of money invested. 



With the fact before us that there are less cows in the state 

 today than there were a year ago, and with the demand there 

 is for good dairy cows, also beef, it surely needs no argument 



