FARMERS' CLUBS. 53 



shire or Vermont, who in turn tries all the professions — who teams, 

 farms it, peddles, keeps a school, preaches, edits a paper., goes to 

 Congress, buys a township, etc., in successive years, and always, 

 like a cat, falls on his feet, is worth a dozen of these city dolls. 

 He walks abreast with his days, and feels no shame in studying a 

 profession ; for he does not postpone his life, but lives already. 

 He has not one chance, but a hundred chances." 



Let these suggestions encourage the establishment of institu- 

 tions for mutual improvement by farmers and mechanics. Other 

 classes combine, and why not " Nature's noblemen " do the same, 

 and share the rich reward ? Can any one man, working alone on 

 his farm, learn as much as one hundred men, of similar ability and 

 application ? May not each discover some practical and impor- 

 tant fact, and should not his neighbors know it ? A farmer must 

 be slothful indeed, if during a year he has not learned one new 

 fact in relation to agriculture, or in the arts ; and should a hun- 

 dred neighbors meet, then each will learn ninety-nine new facts 

 for the one communicated by himself. 



Boys on the Farm. 



I have spoken of the depreciation of population in the country 

 towns. There is a reason for this. What is it ? The cause and 

 the remedy may become an interesting subject of inquiry in your 

 Association. If you secure a remedy, you will greatly advance 

 the cause of agriculture and the mechanic arts, perpetuate our 

 institutions, and give a new power to the nation. 



Several causes combine to call young men away from the farm. 

 The idea that farming is "dirty drudgery" has been thoroughly 

 instilled into them by the popular voice. In too many instances 

 the one supposed to be the brightest is selected for the store, bank 

 or college, and money expended upon him, a portion of which 

 might have given all fair opjBortunity for a practical education. 

 Young persons in villages or cities, they say, are better clad, have 

 more amusements, more association with each other, better oppor- 

 tunities for acquiring polite manners, the art of conversation, and 

 other graces which adorn good society. 



By obtaining situations in stores or counting-rooms, boys think 

 they are raising themselves to distinction, in the minds of society. 

 And society has taught them to think it more honorable to wear 

 fine cloth and have soft and delicate hands. Many of the causes, 

 then, for absenteeism njay be fairly attributed to farmers them- 



