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known, the New England farmer never did like to be drilled 

 to give up certain things of his individual rights, and that 

 very thing has been to his disadvantage in a business way. 

 During the Revolution, the New England soldiers came close 

 to mutiny at Valley Forge. That will seem strange to New 

 England people who regard their section as the most loyal 

 part of the country, yet it is true, and the mutiny was not 

 over a principle, but over what our soldiers call a mean 

 practice. 



Baron Steuben came from Germany and started in to 

 drill American soldiers. He had them out at all hours of 

 the day, drilling and drilling, handling their guns and 

 marching about. It seemed like an outrage to those Yan- 

 kee soldiers, and they went to Washington for relief. They 

 said they came to fight, not to march around like school 

 boys. AVashington told them to go back and learn how to 

 fight, but they said "We know how. With our rifle we can 

 pick a squirrel of the top of a tree, what more do we need?" 

 The answer was, "If that is so, why do you not stand in the 

 open field against the British regulars. AVe cannot always 

 fight behind stone walls as at Lexington, and you know that 

 you cannr/ stand up against those regulars until you learn 

 to fight together." They went back to their drill, though it 

 galled them to the heart, but when the British left Philadel- 

 phia and marched across New Jersey, AVashington chased 

 them, and at the battle of Monmouth, Baron Steuben was 

 vindicated As the result of his drill, the American soldiers 

 stood up like a stone wall, and for the first time in history 

 the British regulars found soldiers who were more than their 

 equal, because the Americans had learned how to co-operate 

 and fight together. And there lies the great lesson today 

 for the NcAV England farmer. He must learn all over again 

 through hard and constant drill how to stand ud with us 

 brothers on even terms, and fight not as individuals, but as 

 a strong body of men. Imagine the folly of a man, in bat- 

 tle using the power of his arm and his shoulder, and yet 

 sticking out one single finger, or his thumb, to deliver a 

 blow. He would hurt himself more than he did his enemy, 

 but when the fingers and the thumb are put together in the 

 form of a fist, the same power back of them makes the man 

 five times as effective. 



Or if you ask further why tlie New England farmers 

 should co-operate, let us consider another point, the com- 

 petition which is constantly growing in our markets from 



