628 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



achievements it is gratifying to know that man has not forgotten 

 his weaker brother." How small our achievements seem beside 

 (hat which she has done! 



In this, our country, the poor and oppressed of other nations see 

 a home full of possibilities for them. Jt is then our duty and work 

 to see that they are properly trained physically, mentally, and 

 morally, to become good citizens. Usually they are willing and 

 anxious that their children should enter the public schools and 

 have all the advantages which they offer. How patient we should 

 be with these little ones, for indeed it must be discouraging and 

 slow work for them, transplanted from their native country, to one 

 of such different language and customs. "Plough deep while slug- 

 gards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell and keep," said Dr. 

 Franklin, and in every case this maxim applies to the success or 

 non-success of the patrons of husbandry. 



The farmer's son, impatient of the toil required for thrift and 

 enterprise, forsakes the home of his childhood and seeks other 

 occupations. If adapted to these, he succeeds, if not, he fails and 

 misses his opportunity. And why should the farmer's son wish to 

 leave the farm? Surely with the improved machinery of to-day 

 his work cannot be so very hard. What if he does have to work 

 early and late some seasons of the year, does not any one who 

 wishes to succeed have to do the same? Take the young lawyer, 

 if success crowns his efforts, he must work early and late, not pari 

 of the year, but all the time. In what occupation do we have so 

 much freedom as that of the farmer? Out in the pure air and sur- 

 rounded with the beauties of Nature the farmer boy can have good 

 companions and good health, even if his bank account does not grow 

 so rapidly as that of his friend, who, with pale cheeks, stands be- 

 hind the desk of a crowded city office. The farmer now has every 

 opportunity to educate himself, and even if he cannot take a course 

 in agriculture, the national and state governments come to his aid, 

 and send (for the mere asking) information on any subject he may 

 desire. 



It is good rather than ill fortune, sometimes, when the stern voice 

 of Duty demands that the farmer's boy remain where God has placed 

 him, and if prompt to improve the opportunities that lie around 

 him, he becomes a noble representative of the type of manhood, 

 thus described by the poet: 



"He is a hardy, sunburned man, 



But who can boast a hand so free 

 As he, the tiller can? 



He trudges out at break of day, 

 And takes his way along, 



And as he turns the yielding clay, 

 He sings a joyous song. 



No summer heat, nor winter's cold 

 The power has him to foil; 



Oh, far above the knights of old, 

 Is the tiller of the soil." 



