Finding the Native Interest 221 



this simply because they used methods of tradition 

 and guess rather than those of science. 



Now apply the foregoing situation to the boy prob- 

 lem, if you will. So long as we attempt to secure 

 from him the wrong results and deal with him by 

 wrong methods, we are likely to conclude that there 

 is "nothing in him." Therefore, in order to act 

 intelligently and helpfully in the matter of giving the 

 young son a business relation to farm life, it is first 

 necessary to determine, as far as may be possible, 

 the bent of his mind, remembering that the great 

 artist, the great writer, or the great captain of indus- 

 try is just as likely to be born in the country home as 

 elsewhere. In fact, we shall learn in time, much to 

 our advantage, that there must be a careful sifting 

 process which will result in sending some of the 

 country-bred young men directly to their important 

 places in the city, and some of the city-bred youths 

 to the rural industries. 



MUCH EXPERIMENTATION NECESSARY 



The one who undertakes to develop a boy's inter- 

 est in business affairs has really before him a problem 

 in experimental psychology. Many of the youth's 

 best aptitudes are necessarily still slumbering and 

 unknown to either himself or others. The funda- 

 mental steps preparatory for a successful com- 

 mercial venture on the part of a young man are com- 

 paratively few but none of them can safely be 

 omitted. They are as follows : 



