FARMING AS AN OCCUPATION FOR CITY-BRED MEN. 241 



course, upon the capital available. It is a good plan for the city 

 man who has the means to take some sort of course in a school of 

 agriculture as a preparation for farming. Schools of this kind are 

 multiplying rapidly in this country. Every State has its agricul- 

 tural college, and many of the States are building agricultural schools 

 of secondary grade. The latter are particularly valuable to the city 

 man who would learn how to farm, as they give more attention to 

 the practical details of farming than the colleges do, the function of 

 the agricultural high school being primarily to turn out men fitted 

 for farming, while the main function of the college is to turn out 

 men fitted for agricultural investigation and teaching. 



AS A GARDENER IN THE SUBURBS. 



Whenever it is feasible a very good plan for the city man who has 

 no knowledge of farming and who desires to become a farmer is to 

 move to the suburbs and begin in a small way as a gardener. At 

 first the principal aim should be to produce truck crops for home con- 

 sumption. As experience is gained the industry may be enlarged and 

 a market established. Many men have made the transition in this 

 manner. Others have started with one or two cows, and have let the 

 business grow from the profits obtained in it. Others have succeeded 

 by beginning in a small way with poultry or fruit. The knowledge 

 gained in this way, both as regards the details of farming and concern- 

 ing methods of marketing, finally enables the beginner to abandon 

 his city employment and become a farmer. 



SOME INSTANCES OF SUCCESS. 



A few men have succeeded without this gradual transition. They 

 have moved boldly to the country, put their capital into land, and by 

 hard work, much study, and exceedingly frugal living for a few years, 

 until the business has been learned and a profit assured, have been 

 highly successful. Farmers' Bulletins Nos. 242 and 355, issued by 

 the United States Department of Agriculture, give accounts of two 

 farmers who have succeeded in this manner. Such changes are 

 usually accompanied, for a few years, by the severest kind of hard- 

 ship ; but if the man is intelligent, a close observer, and not afraid of 

 work, it is possible to succeed under such conditions. 



An interesting case of this kind came to notice recently. At the 

 Iowa State Corn Show in 1909 the ear of corn which took the grand 

 championship prize, and which sold at auction for $160, was pro- 

 duced by a farmer who ten years previously was a driver of a laundry 

 wagon in the city of Des Moines. It must be recognized, however, 

 that men who have thus succeeded have invariably been men of un- 

 usual ability. 



