208 STATE BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. 



vousness of freedom excites to emulation, our youug men and women, reared on 

 the farm, gravitate toward the centers of population? In the old country, the 

 rush is to escape the foul, putrescent air and fumes of the city and its constant 

 whirl of business and it? unwholesome stimulation that they may seek the quiet, 

 unassuming, healthy and itivigorating life of the farm. Here we have all the 

 pleasure, beauty, charm and health of rural life, and crowd into the cities only 

 to enervate our physical powers, raise a degenerated progeny, and shorten onr 

 own lives. 



Is not the home-life of the farmer, in a great degree, responsible for this 

 desire to leave the farm? Has not a too rigid economy — or rather economy 

 exercised unwisely and in the wrong place — created a distaste for that which is 

 the great source of enjoyment and improvement? Has not the farmer too 

 often shown a disposition to repress the ever active and inquisitive mind of his 

 child when he should have placed before him the means of satisfying this thirst 

 for a knowledge of things? The mind seeks contact with others, thus produc- 

 ing "fruitful collision and friction of mind with mind." It is not possible to 

 erect a high barrier, like a Chinese wall, around his tentative disposition, 

 expecting it will remain in solitary confinement. The prison cell was made for 

 the criminal and not for the free, acquisitive, out-reaching spirit of the youth. 



A farmer's home should be surrounded with all that help to improve and 

 draw out the faculties of the child. The parent should manifest an interest in 

 imjorovement, by himself adding some grains of knowledge to his own stock, 

 thus setting an example worthy of imitation before his children. Let him 

 supply his home circle with the best works on agriculture. Let him secure the 

 records of experience which other farmers have written for the improvement of 

 all. Let him delve a little deeper and search into the science of the growth of 

 plants. Let him secure some of the best paj^ers and periodicals, which will 

 keep him informed of events as they transpire about him. Ltt him read his 

 national history, and turn a thought also to what has been done in other lands. 

 But facts alone do not solve every problem and do not accomplish the full result 

 aimed at. The great aim in acquiring knowledge should be the mental power 

 it develops. So these facts must be grouped together before the relation of 

 cause and effect is seen and general laws and principles can be deduced. This 

 demands thought and reflection, and these bring contentment and happiness and 

 growth to the mind itself. 



The young man works upon the farm Avith greater zest when he can see in 

 the furrow turned something to incite thought ; when in the feeding of the 

 stock he can see that the plan he has found discussed is proving an advantage 

 and yielding a handsome profit ; when by comparison he can see that the blade 

 of grass or the first shoot of the shrub have come up by the same law of 

 growth, while one comes to maturity in a brief time and has a comparatively 

 ephemeral existence, but the other grows into a large and stately tree, and lives 

 for generations and even centuries. 



In addition to this mental acquisition of facts and principles come the ameni- 

 ties of life. The young gentleman and young lady on the farm are just as 

 sensitive to the lack of culture and refinement as he would be who is recognized 

 as extremely elegant and polished in his manners. Is it not a fact that many a 

 young man is led to leave the farm and go to the city for fear that he shall 

 become a boor in society, or because of false notions of gentility? Are there 

 not many who would Avillingly remain on the farm if they knew that when they 

 went into society they Avoukl not be the subject of an ungracious criticism for 



