966 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



were old enough to leave home for other employment, leaving him alone in his old age, 

 greatly to his sorrow ; two out of the four, relaxing from the old severe regime of home life, 

 became dissipated spendthrifts, while the daughters left home for employment in the city as 

 clerks or teachers, leaving the old couple desolate indeed. This is no overdrawn picture, but 

 is only one instance in many that can be found in real life, and is but the natural result of 

 such unwise discipline. If farmers desire their boys to like farm life, they should try to 

 make it attractive to them; the la,bor should be made interesting in order to be attractive; 

 boys should be consulted about the farm management; should be given positions of responsi 

 bility and trust; should be allowed the ownership of certain farm animals, and be permitted 

 to have the proceeds of their profit for their own. They should also be given the use of a 

 small portion of land, and be encouraged to try experiments upon it, having the sole charge 

 of it. Encourage them to set out a few strawberries, raspberries, grapes, fruit trees, etc., 

 allowing them sufficient time to take care of them. 



Commencing in this way, they will go on interesting themselves more and more in the 

 business, if suitably encouraged, and will learn to like it. Farmers boys should be well edu 

 cated, and furnished with interesting and instructive reading on agricultural and other sub 

 jects. Labor-saving implements should be employed to the best purpose on the farm, in order 

 to render the employment more profitable and less of a drudgery. Teach them to regard farm 

 ing as just as honorable an occupation as any other employment by honoring it yourself. Make 

 the home pleasant and attractive, and let them see that life is not all a drudgery a place for 

 coining money simply to hoard it up, and to make stern sacrifices of the necessary comforts of 

 life. Let them be dressed neatly and suitably; treat them liberally, and in such a manner 

 that they will feel that their social and intellectual advantages and privileges generally are fully 

 equal to those of the sons of lawyers, merchants, or any of the other avocations or professions. 

 Study to make farming a success, and thus let them realize that it may be made just as 

 profitable as any other business, when the amount of capital involved is considered, and that 

 it will admit of the same social and intellectual advantages; that there are possibilities in 

 farming which the highest success yet attained has never reached. America s greatest 

 philosopher has said: &quot;The world is all gates and opportunities, strings of tension waiting to 

 be struck; the earth, sensitive as iodine to light, the most plastic and impressionable medium, 

 alive to every touch, and whether searched by the plow of Adam, the sword of Caesar, the 

 boat of Columbus, the telescope of Galileo, or the surveyor s chain of Picard, or the sub 

 marine telegraph, to every one of these experiments it makes a gracious response.&quot; It is the 

 man that makes the business, and not the business the man. If farming has hitherto proved 

 unremunerative, make it remunerative by adopting wiser and better methods. 



Farmers daughters should be taught to respect the avocation of their fathers, and not 

 feel above performing the duties pertaining to the farm house a foolish idea that is too 

 frequently entertained in the farmers homes of the present day. By treating children in this 

 manner, they will acquire an interest in, and love for farm life, and be more liable to follow 

 it, and succeed in it when they attempt. &quot;We are essentially a nation of farmers, and no 

 country in the world has agricultural facilities that can at all be compared with it. Agassiz 

 once said: &quot;In Europe everything is done to maintain the rights and honor of the few; in 

 America everything is done to make a man of him who has any elements of manhood in 

 him.&quot; &quot;We would say to the farmer: teach and train your sons and daughters in such a 

 manner as to develop to the highest extent the elements of true manhood and womanhood in 

 them; elevate and honor your calling. By so doing, taking advantage of the best experience 

 of others, you will not fail to render it a success for yourself, or to make it honored and 

 loved by your children. 



