258 WHAT I KNOW OF FARMING. 



Too many of these regard their homesteads as a 

 prison, in which they must remain until some avenue 

 of escape into the great world shall open before them. 

 The farm to such is but the hollow log into which a 

 bear crawls to wear out the rigors of Winter and 

 await the advent of Spring. Too many of our boys 

 fancy that they know too much for farmers, when in 

 fact they know far too little. A good Farmers' Club, 

 faithfully attended, would take this conceit out of 

 them, imbuing them instead with a realizing sense of 

 their ignorance and incompetency, and a hearty de- 

 sire for practical wisdom. 



A recording secretary, able to state in the fewest 

 words each important suggestion or fact elicited in 

 the course of an evening's discussion, would be 

 hardly less valuable or less honored than a capable 

 president. A single page would often suffice for all 

 that deserves such record out of an evening's discus- 

 sion ; and this, being transferred to a book and pre- 

 served, might be consulted with interest and profit 

 throughout many succeeding years. No other duty 

 should be required of the member who rendered this 

 service, the correspondence of the Club being de- 

 volved upon another secretary. The habit of bring- 

 ing grafts, or plants, ar seeds, to Club meetings, for 

 gratuitous distribution, has been found to increase 

 the interest, and enlarge the attendance of those 

 formerly indifferent. Almost every good farmer or 

 gardener will sometimes have choice seeds or grafts 

 to spare, which he does not care or cannot expect to 



