51 C State Board of Agkiculturk, etc. 



OITORTUNITIES FOR YOUNG FARMERS. 



BY COL. JOHN B. MEAD, OF RANDOLPH. 



Perhaps, among the many teeming topics which at the 

 present time occupy the minds of agricultural writers and 

 speakers, no one is of more consequence to the future of 

 agricultm'e itself, or to the interests of those who may pur- 

 sue it as a calling, than that which relates to the incentives 

 held out and opportunities given to young men to induce 

 them to adopt as a profession the calling of the farmer. And 

 the subject seems so replete with interest to me that I ven- 

 ture at this time to enter upon it, hoping that my words 

 may, at least, be suggestive of some new modes of thought, 

 • upon yet untried remedies for what are call hindrances to 

 the onward march of human progress. We hear upon every 

 hand the complaint that young men quit the paternal acres, 

 upon arriving at their majority, their heads filled with vision- 

 ary schemes for i-apidly getting wealth, which, to a vast 

 number, througli an erroneous education, is the " chief end 

 of man." 



The consequence is that the father, feeling slowly creep- 

 ing over him the infirmities of years, and gradually losing 

 the buoyancy of spirits and the ambition of youth, is led to 

 look with less interest upon the work of his lifetime ; per- 



