AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 



use upon the farm, be it wood, or iron, or steel, 

 and how to make the tools that make the im- 

 plements; how to repair, at his home-made 

 forge, a machine, a mower, a harvester, a plow, 

 or what not — while, under the old order of 

 things, all the labor of the day would stop 

 while some one went to town to have the break 

 mended, there to find the village blacksmith 

 beside himself at the array of broken machines 

 awaiting their turn. Time, money and pa- 

 tience are thus saved in liberal portions. He is 

 taught, also, how to take care of machinery, an 

 important feature where one hundred millions 

 of dollars' worth is bought each year by Ameri- 

 can farmers. Vast waste was suffered in the 

 past through neglect of farm machinery, — the 

 new man knows how to take care of it. 



He learns how properly to kill and dress 

 cattle, sheep and poultry. Many a farmer of 

 the Old Earth did not know this, nor did he 

 have any comprehension where lay the choice 

 cuts of the beef. He ate the worst and sold 

 the best, and cursed the tax on his teeth and 

 jaws. The new farmer learns that it is quite 

 as easy to have good meats on the farm as 

 to have poor meats. The anatomy of every 



341 



