HOW TO AMUSE THE YOUNG PEOPLE OF THE FAEMS. 477 



matter was first conceived in the brain by hard mental labor. The produc- 

 tiveness of Michigan, its agricultural wealth and educational prestige are 

 the result of efforts made by thinkers and toilers. While we tench that all 

 labor is honorable, let us remember that the best work, either ment;tl or 

 manual, must have dashes of leisure and pleasure between times. To lighten 

 labor for the young we must have rest, recreation and amusement. To 

 work all of the time is to dishonor manhood, and change the image of God 

 in man to the semblance of a beast of burden. However, we want less 

 manual and more mental labor, less hand and more brain work, less moqn 

 and more book farming, and the results will be more satisfying. 



We are not social enough, but I think we are improving. Boating and 

 hunting, picnics and excursions, festivals and fairs, commence now with 

 mosquitoes and end with frost. Let the young people take them in, they are 

 harmless, and remember that what interests the children should not be 

 beneath the notice of parents. 



Excursions which cost one dollar will take one half across the State, and 

 while they please, they also instruct and furnish food for thought. Don't 

 spend ten dollars on a month old pig, and refuse your boy one for an excur- 

 sion. His heart is as much set on amusement as yours is upoa Poland-China 

 pigs. Don't comb, curry, house and grain your colts, and, metaphorically 

 speaking, turn your boys out to grass. Don't give the boys the poorest quar- 

 ters in the house, and save the furnished rooms for transients, Dou't make 

 jour home so chill that they find it jollier at the saloons. 



Have games, jokes and stories at home, as good as can be found elsewhere. 

 Have parties, temperance lectures and spelling schools. 



The latter will improve quite a number of old people. Have the girls 

 learn music with bread making. When you plow for vegetables spade up 

 the flower beds and spread compost on them. Interest the children in plant- 

 ing trees upon anniversaries. Have lawns and shade, flowers and fruit, birds 

 and music, boating, riding and driving, and if you keep out of debt, a little 

 paradise can be made, even on a farm, . 



It was thought, when the serf wore his master's collar, and so on down the 

 ages, that the agricultural toiler only lived to benefit the rest of mankind. 



Times are changing, the standard of intelligence is being elevated, the 

 world's great thinkers are looking, and helping, and expecting that the 

 agricultural toilers will take another upward step. And they are climbing 

 the upward grade intellectually, socially and politically. Having learned to 

 work unitedly, the power for good which they thus hold can hardly be meas- 

 ured, and as yet is not fully appreciated. Agricultural colleges, experi- 

 ment stations, fish hatcheries, farmers' clubs and granges are all working 

 together for intellectual and financial prosperity. The world worships that 

 which pays and applauds success, and by united efforts we mean to win suc- 

 cess, to make our labor pay and to cause the enactment of just laws regulat- 

 ing the distribution of the proceeds of labor. To have leisure and pleasure 

 for ourselves and children we must make the farms pay better. To make 

 them pay better we must cultivate them better. 



To man is given dominion over the earth, he is lord of animate and inani- 

 mate creation. The seen and unseen forces are waiting to obey him. Yet 

 without cultivation the earth is little better than a barren waste. Every 

 noxious weed is evidence that we have not obeyed the injunction, "Subdue 

 the earth," and every waste place denies our right to the soil. 



