214 BOAED OP AGRICULTUEE. [Jan., 



I think you will agree with me that it is usually the young 

 teachers, the young ministers, and perhaps the young newspaper- 

 men who are the most enthusiastic and the most hopeful regard- 

 ing their ability to quickly educate and reform the world. Older 

 men have learned that great results are only attained after great 

 and long-continued effort. 



So, on coming together at these winter meetings, if we some- 

 times discover a great diversity of opinion concerning the best 

 farm methods, and find it not always easy to convince our associ- 

 ates that they are wrong and we right, or if, after the week's dis- 

 cussion, we are each able to carry away but a single new idea of 

 value, we should not be discouraged. 



COMPULSORY FARMING. 



A very large proportion of the men who are now at the head of 

 our New England farms have become farmers by a sort of fate or 

 chance, rather than from personal choice. Circumstances over 

 which they have apparently had but little control have influenced 

 them. In many cases, the strong desires of the old father or 

 mother to have the homestead continue in the family name has 

 exerted a controlling influence over the action of the son; for the 

 old-world love of paternal acres has not all been exterminated 

 from the blood of the new world's people. A part ownership in 

 an inherited farm has tempted many to try their hand at the busi- 

 ness who have little real love for it and less of that training neces- 

 sary to the highest success in any business. Some of the least 

 enterprising farmers in the country are found among this class. 

 They are generally kind-hearted, accommodating neighbors, and 

 useful citizens. They have been kind to their parents in their old 

 age, and are working as well as they know how for the comfort 

 and benefit of their wives and children ; but, having neither love 

 for nor much skill in their business, the comforts are not always 

 as abundant as might be desired. Many among this class would 

 have made excellent mechanics had they been early encouraged 

 and trained in that direction, and it seems a pity that good mechan- 

 ics should have been thus spoiled to make such indifferent farmers. 

 I suspect that a very large proportion of the grumbling and 

 depreciatory expressions concerning farming in general, and New 

 England farming in particular, have emanated from this class of 

 farmers who were made farmers against their will or against their 



