256 WHAT I KNOW OF FARMING. 



To the class of which this man was a fair repre- 

 sentative, Farmers' Clubs must prove of signal value. 

 Though there should be nothing else than a Farmers' 

 Club in his neighborhood, it can hardly fail in time 

 to make such a one realize that life need not and 

 should not be all drudgery ; that there are other 

 things worth living for beside accumulating wealth. 

 Let his wife and his neighbor succeed in drawing 

 such a one into two or three successive meetings, and 

 he can hardly fail to perceive that thrift is a product 

 of brain as well as of muscle ; that he may grow rich 

 by learning and knowing as well as by delving, and 

 that, even though he should not, there are many 

 things desirable and laudable beside the accumulation 

 of wealth. 



A true Farmers' Club should consist of all the fam- 

 ilies residing in a small township, so far as they can 

 be induced to attend it, even though only half their 

 members should be present at any one meeting. It 

 should limit speeches to ten minutes, excepting only 

 those addresses or essays which eminently qualified 

 persons are requested to specially prepare and read. 

 It should have a president, ready and able to repress 

 all ill-natured personalities, all irrelevant talk, and 

 especially all straying into the forbidden regions of 

 political or theological disputation. At each meeting, 

 the subject should be chosen for the next, and not 

 less than four members pledged to make some obser- 

 vations thereon, with liberty to read them if unused 

 to speaking in public. These having been heard, 



