LABOR ON THE FARM. 59 



Of course, in these hours of labor, we are on discipline. It is 

 regular business, as much as the inside work of the institution. 

 At the appointed hour the roll is called, and every student is 

 required to be there unless he has a good excuse, from sickness 

 or some other cause. And I do not find them playing baby ; 

 I do not find them talking off; I do not find them trying to 

 shirk the duty. One reason, I suppose, is this, that the best 

 scholars in the school, those who regularly mark highest in their 

 studies, are the very best men we have in our labor companies. 

 They take hold, and then all the rest, as it were by their 

 influence, follow. 



" What have you set them about ? " Well, they came at a 

 very unpropitious time of the year. They came in the fall. I 

 can imagine that I could interest them if they came in April, 

 when we were planting our gardens, and when everything was 

 starting with the new life of spring ; but when they came in the 

 fall, when our work was the hardest and least interesting, I did 

 not know what might be the result. Now, I have- put those 

 boys upon the hardest work — upon everything that has to be ,-. 

 done upon a farm. I have made no selection, taking that which 

 would be the nicest or the easiest, but they have been called 

 upon to do in these hours of labor, whatever there was to be 

 done. They have husked all our corn, some 1,800 bushels ; 

 dug all our potatoes and all our root-crops ; spread all our 

 manure ; and everything these boys did with the utmost 

 cheerfulness and alacrity. They took hold and worked like men. 



W^hen the crops were harvested, what next ? We had upon 

 the farm some old orchards, whose day had gone by. The 

 trees had become worthless, and the boys were set to work 

 digging round them, digging up the roots, and taking the tree 

 down, stem, root and branch. They have made a clean sweep 

 of something like five acres, cutting up every tree in good 

 shape. Then, as I have said, our land was covered with bushes, 

 our pastures were overrun with brush. A large number of 

 bush-cutters were purchased, and the boys were turned out and 

 took out the bushes by the roots. They went into it with alac- 

 rity, and apparent pleasure, and something like nine acres have 

 been cleared of every bush by the boys. 



I can report, then, in relation to this matter of labor, that the 

 system works well ; there has been no difficulty whatever. Of 



