404 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCILTY. 



This method can not but create in the boy an intense desire for 

 something different. Because the boy desires to go to town it does not 

 go to say he loathes work, because in town he will slave as an ill paid 

 clerk without expectation of ever being able to secure a home, while on 

 a farm he is assured of independence if not opulence. 



Then the question should be, How can farm work be made attract- 

 ive? It is said that it is the birth right of every American boy to be a 

 possible candidate for the presidency. If this is so, how much more 

 right is it for him to choose his vocation. But it is certain you can not 

 convert a young man's mind from one place to another by the "rubbing 

 in" process. 



There are some who make a common complaint againt the Agri- 

 cultural Colleges, viz., that by offering a wider field from which to 

 choose than would be used in the study of agriculture, farmer's sons 

 are turned away from this pursuit, that is they insist that the boy be en- 

 closed in an agricultural atmosphere, lest he be drawn to some other vo- 

 cation. This seems to me to be a singular way to elevate the pursuit of 

 agriculture. It shows one of two things: either it is objectionable for a 

 farmer's son to be anything but a farmer, or farming is too low a pursuit 

 to bear comparison with other walks of life, and consequently he must 

 not have a look at these occupations. Choose either. The, one is ob- 

 noxious and un-American, the other stultifies the claim that farming is 

 a high pursuit, and that it makes those engaged in this occupation self- 

 reliant and independent. 



Farming, when intelligently carried on, will not suffer when com- 

 parison is made with other occupations, but it is where farming is made 

 a routine of unprogressive work that it will suffer by the comparison. 

 And it will be seen that it is the progressive farmer who allows his son 

 to be taught his profession in the full light of modern sciences as is now 

 taught in most Agricultural Colleges. 



It seems to me there can be no doubt of the fact that the 6ld sys- 

 tem of training is much to blame for the numerous instances in which 

 men and women have entirely missed their life vocation, simply be- 

 cause they have not been brought face to face with what they were truly 

 fitted. In every walk of life we see persons who have no right to be 

 there, quack doctors, penny-a-liners, bad poets, worse doctors and kid- 

 glove farmers. 



There certainly is an occupation for everybody, and if all arc given a 

 good education they are likely to choose the right one, and to succeed. 

 But if a boy, born and raised on a farm, does not take readily to farm 

 work, it is much better for him to engage in some other business in 



