294 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



man aspires to a higher life, and is bound to get an education, 

 even if he has to work it out with his own hands, such are 

 usually benefited by education, and many of the great men of this 

 country were such. They could be named -by scores. There were 

 two such young men in our town, both of them poor. They com- 

 menced at SufSeld, built fires, took care of doctors' horses, and 

 anything to pay their way, and while in college they kept night 

 schools and various other work to keep along. One of them run 

 out of funds, and came home. He came over to my house, and 

 wanted to work for me until he had earned one hundred dollars, 

 I set him to work, and paid him the amount. Then he returned, 

 and in due time graduated with honor. That young man now 

 holds an important position as professor in a medical college in 

 Chicago. I saw him a few days ago, and asked him if the educa- 

 tion he labored so hard to get was of use to him now. He replied 

 that it was, and he was using it to advantage, and thanked me for 

 my assistance. The other young man also graduated with honor, 

 and is now pastor of a large church in Cleveland, Ohio, with 

 a salary of $2,000 a year. There are many cases all over the 

 country where a man's education is all he has to lean upon. It is 

 his farm. But to send boys to college because we do not know 

 what else to do with them or our money, and when they will 

 never be likely to use their education to advantage, is a mistake. 

 They are morally and physically worse, and had better have staid 

 at home and dug potatoes. 



There are two things that I want to tell young farmers not to 

 do. One is, never go to law. Better pay twice over, because you 

 are sure to do it if you go to law, and get no satisfaction at last. 

 Set down your foot that you will starve every lawyer, for if you 

 don't they may rob you, for that is their farm. One other thing 

 is, never run in debt, for interest gnaws worse than any canker- 

 worm. It eats when we lie down and when we rise up, when we 

 work and when we are idle, when we sleep, and when we are at 

 church. It is as relentless as the sword. And there is one other 

 thing nearly as bad. That is, draining swamp land. Nine times 

 out of ten it is burying money in the mud. Better use it to buy 

 upland. I have tried reclaiming swamp quite too much. I now 

 think of what the farmer told his son. The father had worked in 

 the swamp with about as much satisfaction as we usually get. One 

 day he called his son to him (a very good boy), and began to 

 whip him. The boy says: " Father, what are you whipping me 



