IV. 



PREPARING TO FARM. 



I WRITE mainly for beginners for young persons, 

 and some not so young, who are looking to farming 

 as the vocation to which their future years are to be 

 given, by which their living is to be gained. In this 

 chapter, I would counsel young men, who, not having 

 been reared in personal contact with the daily and 

 yearly round of a farmer's cares and duties, purpose 

 henceforth to live by farming. 



To these I would earnestly say, " No haste !" Our 

 boys are in too great a hurry to be men. They want 

 to be bosses before they have qualified themselves to 

 be efficient journeymen. I have personally known 

 several instances of young men, fresh from school or 

 from some city vocation, buying or hiring a farm and 

 undertaking to work it ; and I cannot now recall a 

 single instance in which the attempt has succeeded ; 

 while speedy failure has been the usual result. The 

 assumption that farming is a rude, simple matter, re- 

 quiring little intellect and less experience, has buried 

 many a well-meaning youth under debts which the 

 best efforts of many subsequent years will barely 



