EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X. 701 



the things now raised on the farm and some of the methods employed 

 now will no longer pay. The boy ought to be taught these things. 



Above all, teach him the sanctity and blessing of his calling as a 

 farmer, and that in times of financial disaster the farmer "surest sits and 

 fears no fall." 



KEEPING THE BOY ON THE FARM. 

 Breeders' Gazette. 



A few days ago I overheard a conversation between two lads of some 

 fifteen or sixteen years, sons of two prominent farmers who have large 

 fields overflowing with the fruits of nature and teeming with golden 

 grain. One of the boys was stating to the other what he was going to 

 buy with the money which he was soon to obtain from the sale of an 

 aged sow and her six young ones. The boy said his father allowed him 

 the privilege of rearing and of having "for his very own" several pets 

 each year, and the pets were usually young pigs which were weakly and 

 would soon have died had the boy not rescued them and raised them by 

 hand. In this way he acquired quite a great deal of spending money and 

 generally put it to a good use, investing in other lines of farmer boy 

 business which his father always referred him to. 



But alas for the other boy! It seemed to him that no matter how dili- 

 gently and faithfully he worked, and how fond he was of a pet that he 

 could sell and have money, his father would never give him a pet, nor even 

 a tiny runt, and generally remarked when the boy would ask for some 

 spending money, that "his boy spent more money for foolishness than 

 he had during his whole life." The facts seem to show that but few were 

 the nickels and dimes that this prominent farmer gave to his son. The 

 lad was not satisfied, and no one could blame him, for when a boy works 

 hard all day from 5 in the morning till 7 at night he feels that his work 

 should be appreciated and that he should have some slight recompense for 

 his labor. 



I do not insinuate that he should be paid a regular amount for his 

 work, as he is not a hired man by any means; but this particular lad 

 would have felt better, had a greater respect for his father, worked better 

 and, last but not least, would have stayed on his father's farm longer, if 

 he had been allowed to have a part of the gains from the farm. It would 

 have made him feel that in later years, when he was in the very prime of 

 life and his father being old and unfit to manage the farm, it would be 

 his duty to stay and manage in his father's place. But where one will 

 stay hundreds will leave for the city, the factory, the mill — any place 

 almost where they can feel that their labor is worth a just and liberal pay. 



It is no wonder then that farmers are often heard to say: "I do not 

 know what's getting into my son John's head; he acts like he does not 

 care whether he works or not." But the old farmer cannot awaken to 

 the fact, it seems, that times have changed since he was a young man, 

 and the young man of today should be equal to and in some cases ahead 

 of the old man of fifty years ago. It is true that the farm may be left 

 to him when his father is gone, but would not he work better, feel better 



