416 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 



ABOUT CHOOSING AN OCCUPATION. 



Hon. L. H. Kerrick in Breeders' Gazette. 



It is a good thing for a young man to get it into his head that he i& 

 in the world to do business of some kind. If he should become possessed 

 of such an idea rather early — even by the time he is eighteen or twenty 

 years old — it is not going to hurt him. It would not hinder him from 

 sleeping and eating well nor head off any genuine sport or recreation; 

 and it might save him from a deal of foolish and dangerous indulgence 

 and save him also from much waste of time or vigor by preoccupying 

 him with manly aims and desires. 



Every young man who may reasonably expect to do something and 

 be somebody must sooner or later choose an occupation that he will fol- 

 low for all there is in it. The world has little use for a man who is of 

 no use to it. A business of some kind is the instrument through which 

 a man expresses himself and with which he impresses himself upon the 

 world. With a scythe in his hand a man cuts a good swath in the grass. 

 It is with some kind of business in hand and of which he is master that a 

 man cuts a respectable swath and leaves some mark where he passes 

 through this earthly vale. 



I would have the young man make choice of his occupation sooner 

 rather than later. We hear and read much now-a-days about waiting, 

 going slowly. "Do not be in a hurry" they say, "to close down to any 

 particular calling: it will dwarf your powers and narrow your views. Get 

 larger ideas and broader views first." This kind of advice may be neces- 

 sary in order to make room and demand for long-drawn-out university 

 courses. "Large ideas" and "broad views" by themselves "cut no ice"; 

 they have no edge nor point. A purpose single and early-shaped to mas- 

 ter some great or useful art sharpens one's powers to hew out a way to 

 fortune and to honor. I would not discourage schooling nor undervalue it. 

 A young man with a strong purpose in mind to master some particular 

 profession will have appetite enough for schooling; he knows that he 

 will need it in his business and he will find time, enough to get enough 

 of it. 



If by waiting one could find out what by nature he is best adapted 

 to do, then wait; but we have not noticed that men who wait until they 

 are twenty-five or thirty to make a right choice of an occupation hit it 

 oftener than they who start earlier. Indeed, we think we have observed 

 that the earlier birds furnish the larger number of successes. Nobody 

 knows any rule by which it may be certainly predetermined what business 

 a young man is best suited to follow. If anybody has discovered a rule 

 he carefully guards his secret. In rare cases boys and girls show a pro- 

 nounced aptness for doing some particular kind of work. In such oases; 



