26(5 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



and he used to do errands, and he used to bring into the 

 family treasury a considerable sum of money in one way 

 and another. After John came home from college the 

 father noticed that John kept talking about his good days 

 in college, but he did not suggest going back to the farm, 

 and he walked about the streets and called upon the neigh- 

 bors ; and finally this young man came to the old fellow 

 and asked him to lend him fifty cents to buy a new-fash- 

 ioned necktie which had just made its appearance. The old 

 fellow scratched his head. When the colored people down 

 south want to think, they scratch their heads. He remem- 

 bered that before John went to college he didn't wear an} r 

 necktie at all, and he wondered what the advantage to him 

 was now of this fifty-cent necktie ; but he let the son have the 

 necktie, and the thing went on until finally the young man 

 came to the father and looked him in the face and asked him 

 to lend him four dollars to buy a pair of patent leather shoes. 

 The old man scratched his head harder than ever before, but 

 he let him have the four dollars, and the thing went on. 

 Finally there happened to appear in this town a man from one 

 of the New England towns, and this old man watched the 

 visitor from New England until he caught him around the 

 corner where none would observe them and said : " Mister, 

 I want you to help me. I's in trouble sho enough. I's in 

 deep trouble, and I want you to help me. My son John 

 has been to school, my son John has been to college, my 

 son has got good education, he has got his head full of that 

 thing; but, Mister, for God's sake I want you to help me. 

 My John has got his head full of that thing, but Mister, for 

 the Lord's sake, take John and tell him what to do with that 

 thing he has got in his head." Well, very largely as a race 

 I find more and more the question forcing itself upon us is, 

 how to teach our people to use that thing they have got in 

 their heads. There is not much difficulty in getting it in there, 

 but to get the power to use it. Well, the visitor from New 

 England called upon this young man by appointment, and 

 he had a good, plain, common-sense conversation with him. 

 He said to him : " Mister Jones, when you were in college 

 didn't you study chemistry ? " "Yes," he said ; "I spent 



