Rural School Leaflet. 93T 



interest, and arouse the slumbering fires of enthusiasm and ambition 

 into energy. 



This is not a world of chance, nor is success in agriculture a product 

 of chance any more than in science, mechanics or letters. It is the 

 result of constant attention and perfection of details of plans well formu- 

 lated in early life. Lukewarm water will never run an engine. Your 

 purpose should be an overmastering one, and maintained at the boiling 

 point. A supreme aim in life means success. 



Farming was my boyhood's work under the supervision of father and 

 mother. When I was about seventeen, potato growing became to me a 

 very fascinating branch of farming because of the larger returns per 

 acre, compared with wheat growing. There were on our farm obstacles 

 to be overcome. Skill and experience must be developed. Surplus 

 water was the monster of evils. The soil did not yield profitable crops. 

 Stones, stumps, and ill shaped fields were a menace to rapid wholesale 

 work and success. 



At the age of twenty-five I had coaxed a pretty and sensible girl, who 

 has ever been a faithful helpmeet in time of trouble, to marry me, and 

 the next spring, having purchased about half of my father's farm, we 

 commenced in dead earnest for ourselves. After we had thus begun 

 farming with earnestness, the apparently unconquerable enemies to 

 successful agriculture, gradually surrendered unconditionally, to brains 

 and elbow-grease. 



After thirteen years of uninterrupted warfare against these enemies 

 we have now ten miles of round tile drains capturing the surplus water 

 evil. After the soil and subsoil have filtered, robbed, and appropriated 

 all of value which this surplus water contains, it is led in captivity, 

 oceanward by these drains, from one level to a lower level, and to our 

 benefit instead of damage and disappointment. And now, where once 

 ponds of stagnant water, aquatic growth, and giant stumps held undis- 

 puted supremacy, 300 to 450 bushels of potatoes per acre, 3 to 4 tons of 

 cured hay per acre, and 25 to 45 bushels of wheat per acre have been 

 raised, testifying to nature's response when toil and intelligence get into 

 harmony with her laws. 



It is occasionally a blessing for a boy to be handicapped by obstacles 

 and opposition. A kite will not rise without proper weighting. "Where 

 there is a will there is a way." Mistakes are profitable if used as beacon 

 lights on the hilltops of life's journey, to guide across the unstable valleys 

 and shadows and on to the heights of permanency. 



T. E. Martin, 



West Rush 



