1882.] FARM LIFE. 293 



another twenty years. This is not an over-drawn picture. I have 

 lived by them all my life, and had much deal with them. They 

 are straight-going business men. One of them is in the legislature 

 for this winter, and what they have done can be done in almost 

 every neighborhood in New England, and that shows what a 

 power there is in concentrated and well-directed labor. What 

 would these three men have accomplished had they been sepa- 

 rated, and on different farms in different towns ? We have all 

 seen the result of separation. " United we stand, divided we fall." 

 I can point you to many similar cases in this State, and in the 

 State of New York, where the boys have all staid at home, worked 

 and pulled together, and as one after another wanted a farm to 

 settle on, it was provided. This is farm life as it should be. Not 

 a living soul that has a mind to work can dispute it. 



In some book — I think it was in one of our State Board re- 

 ports — I noticed the question asked: What effect it had upon our 

 young men to send them to college ? whether they were better 

 fitted for farmers, or would like work any better or as well ? 

 That question remains on the pages of that book to-day un- 

 answered. I will not attempt to fully answer it, but will give my 

 version of it. That they are better fitted for farming may be 

 questioned by some; that they will love work any better, I think 

 will be denied by the majority. 



There may be exceptions. There is a young man now in col- 

 lege from our town that intends to be a farmer. His father has 

 but a small farm, but when the boy comes home he is out to the 

 barn in fifteen minutes, with pail in hand, ready for business. He 

 reads everything that can be found concerning the farm, and if it 

 were not for the name of college the thousand dollars spent there 

 had better be laid out in improvements or additions to the farm. 

 Generally those that are sent or go to college are those that do not 

 love work over-much. One farmer had three or four boys, and 

 one of them did not like to work very well, and he was sent to 

 college to get him out of the way. His father had occasion to buy 

 a yoke of oxen, one of which proved to be very dull and shirkish. 

 One day the farmer exclaimed: "I don't know what I can do 

 with that ox, he is so lazy." One of the boys at home said: 

 " Father, send him to college." 



If a man is to get his living by education alone, then by all 

 means send him to college, if you are able. Many times young 

 men are not made any better by a college life, but when a voung 



