TALENT ON THE FARM. 41 



answer, " Simply because other avocations pay them better than 

 they can be paid on the farm ; " and so long as that is the case, 

 and men desire to use whatever capacity they have to the very 

 best advantage, you will find this will be true. I think the 

 difficulty, after all, is in this direction. You may educate the 

 best young men of this Commonwealth in the best possible 

 manner for the farm ; but when you have effected this, their 

 talents will command a higher price in other pursuits than they 

 will on the farms of Massachusetts and elsewhere ; and that 

 being the case, the tendancy with them will be to leave the farm 

 when they leave the college. I would like, therefore, to have 

 that point of the question discussed — how we are to tempt the 

 young men who are training themselves in the college to remain 

 on the farm ? They quit the farm, we know. The last place 

 where an educated man will work with his own hands is on a 

 farm ; or, if the doctor tells him, " You will certainly die unless 

 you go to work in the soil," he will leave his office or profession 

 as the last resort, not because he desires to do so, but because 

 he must. We all go, say what we will against it, for what pays 

 the best. I find no fault with that ; it is a principle we should 

 all be very much actuated by, whatever profession or business 

 we were engaged in. Therefore I hope something will be said 

 with reference to this problem : how to retain these young men 

 that you educate on our farms. There is a desire thus to 

 elevate the agricultural community. I hope it will be done ; 

 and I hope this college will be one of the instrumentalities 

 whereby we shall do much towards elevating the taste and 

 increasing the desire for rural pursuits. It is true, say what we 

 will, that there is a desire in almost every man to live on the 

 soil. It is the most natural way for a man to live. There is 

 too much desire among our people, at present, for money. 

 There is too much running after the " almighty dollar," no 

 matter what it costs, and too little thought of those comforts 

 which come from a good rural homestead, such as our New 

 England furnishes, with all the social advantages surrounding 

 it. I therefore trust, that in discussing this important question 

 — one in which we are deeply interested, and in regard to which 

 we all have our hopes and our fears — no word will be said to 

 dishearten, discourage or turn aside the public spirit that would 

 inaugurate an institution of this kind for this Commonwealth 



6 



