328 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



many it has become a willing reality, and lias afforded them a 

 plauaible excuse for quitting the farm. 



Said a young man who was well situated on a farm, when 

 asked why he left it, " I thought I could get a living easier," 

 and various other reasons, but finally said, "To tell the truth, I 

 am too well educated to be a farmer." What an idea. Too 

 well educated ! If there is any branch of industry that needs 

 intelligence, that needs a mind well cultivated, so that it can 

 comprehend new ideas as well as originate them, where men 

 can adapt themselves to their various localities and surround- 

 ings, that branch is farming, without doubt, for it certainly 

 needs a class quick of thought, and prompt in execution. Witii 

 almost every branch of business, definite rules can be laid down 

 that will answer for all localities. Go to the manufacturer and 

 ask him what he can manufacture woollen cloth of a certain 

 quality for, and he will calculate the cost of the raw material, 

 the capital invested, the cost of labor in the process of manu- 

 facture, and all other expenses connected with it, and he will 

 tell you to a cent what it can be done for. Go to the architect 

 and ask him the expense of erecting a building of a certain 

 size and finish, and he will go from foundation to roof, and tell 

 you what it can be done for ; and so with almost every branch of 

 industry until you come to the farmer. And can he tell you 

 what a pound of beef or pork can l)e made for ; what a pound 

 of butter or cheese can be produced for ; what a bushel of 

 oats, wheat or corn can be grown for ; what our garden vege- 

 tables, fruits and all the luxuries of our tables can be produced 

 for ? Certainly not. There are various influences at work day 

 by day, from the time the seed is put into the ground, until we 

 behold the ripened fruit. We watch the tender plant, the blos- 

 som, the first appearance of fruit, and all its various stages 

 until the golden grain or luscious fruit is ready for our use. 

 During all this time we look for the early and latter rain, for the 

 warm and genial influences of the sun. If these are bestowed 

 upon us, and we use those faculties God has given us, we can 

 rejoice in the fruit of our labor. 



Nowhere is there such an opportunity for thought and reflec- 

 tion. The book of nature is constantly open before us, so that 

 the mind that does not continually read from its pages, must be 

 shut up to all those loftier and nobler feelings of our nature. 



