266 The Farm on the Flats. [May, 



out of it; but that the real farming interest would be benefitted I 

 do not believe." 



" You are willing to be taxed then to help support colleges 

 that do nothing for the farmer?" 



"No; but 1 think the colleges I am taxed to support are of 

 some benefit to the farmer. When Jacob was in college I had 

 him make some inquiries, and he found that three-fourths of his 

 class were the sons of farmers. I don't think we pay more than 

 three-fourths of the money that is appropriated to colleges." 



" He was taught nothing about farming there." 



•' Yes he was, he got a good education; learned to observe and 

 to think, and was able to tell me about the different kinds of 

 soils on my land, and what were the best manures. He said the 

 books differed so much that it was not safe to follow any of them 

 too far. Since he left college he has kept observing and reading, 

 and I guess knows as much about farming as any of your scholars 

 would who should go to your agricultural college, and he don't 

 know any the less for working at home with me. Now I say, 

 let us give our boys a good education. Let us make our com- 

 mon schools and academies better; let us have our boys taught 

 to study and think and observe; let them go to college if they 

 wish to; let them study in the schools more things which have a 

 bearing on farming, as they could, if we woukl keep them at 

 school longer: but let the practical part be learned at home. If 

 a boy can't learn practical farming from his father, he will never 

 learn it at college." 



" Suppose the boy's father is not a farmer?" 



*' Then let him live out to a good one. That will be the best 

 school for him. Rich men who have landed property, or wish 

 their sons to have, would send them to your college, and then 

 put them on to great farms; and pretty soon the idea would be, 

 that the farmers of the college are not to work themselves much, 

 but oversee others; just as friend Lord oversees his Irishman. 

 Now you know as well as I do, that the great mass of farmers 

 must work hard with their own hands or they cannot get a liv- 

 ing." 



At this moment a debtor of Mr. Ripley called either to pay the 

 interest of his debt, or to borrow more money. Mr. Ripley was 

 therefore obliged to break off the conversation, and Mr. Cham- 

 bers went home, and went to bed. 



