52 TiiiKTY-SiXTii Annual Report of the 



if rightly applied, they prove a healing balm for tired bodies as 

 well as bruised hearts. We count our cattle and reckon their 

 money value before we consider their keeping and development 

 as a sacred trust. We measure our grand old forest trees by 

 the cord and coolly estimate the gain by their ruthless destruction 

 rather than bend our heads in awe before the mysteries of 

 Nature's greatness. Familiarity has bred contempt and one of 

 the finest attributes of human nature, that of appreciation, has 

 been starved and dwarfed by a surfeit of blessings. 



In passing through the country one may see from the car 

 window many a weather-beaten farm house with not a tree, a vine 

 or shrub to mark it as the home of refined, interesting people. The 

 dooryard will be untidy and littered with unsightly objects; the 

 outbuildings filthy and the cattle scrawny and wild-eyed ; farm im- 

 plements carelessly left unprotected from sun and rain in field 

 or yard. Can one wonder that such a picture does not prove 

 alluring, and that such a dwelling passes for no more than a 

 shelter, even to a farm-born generation whose tendency to dis- 

 content is frequently encouraged, rather than uprooted, by the 

 methods and teachings of slovenly, short-sighted parents. 



HOW TO KEEP THE BOYS ON THE FARM. 



A pathetic wail has gone forth throughout the length and 

 breadth of the land, "What can we do to keep the boys on the 

 farm?" Before attempting to answer, may I ask what we have 

 ever done to make farm life congenial and attractive to our 

 young people? Have they ever heard aught from us of a laud- 

 atory nature concerning our calling? Have not we farmers 

 placed a stigma on our own occupation by holding up the defects 

 instead of the praiseworthy qualities, by impressing upon the 

 young minds the idea that farm life and labor were degrading ; 

 that there was neither profit nor satisfaction in the business and 

 that in the nearby or distant city could be found more respectable 

 and attractive modes of earning a competence? Yes, we have 

 woefully belittled our own calling in an attempt to magnify the 

 greatness of others. In a maudlin self abnegation, we have said 

 to our children, "Our lives have necessarily been one of self- 

 denial and drudgerv. We will still work our fingers to the 

 bone that you who are too good for this labor may have the 

 advantages of a broader education. John shall be a lawyer, a 

 doctor or merchant and, with good clothes and polished manners, 

 occupy a higher position in the esteem of his fellow men." 



In planning for an ennobling mental and physical develop- 

 ment, why not educate John in the same line of business his 

 father has followed? Let him go forth and study the improved 



