10 



desire to make in regard to encouraging the boys to stay on 

 the farm. 



One of my neighbors in Vermont, who kept nothing but 

 an inferior herd of cows and a few poor sheep, complained 

 to me one day about twenty years ago, tliat his boy wanted 

 to go to the city, and as he seemed determined to go he 

 asked me if I could find him a place. I asked him why he 

 did not keep him on the farm. " Well," said he, " that's 

 what I want to do, but he doesn't think it a very good way 

 to get rich." In the course of conversation I found that 

 the boy took a great fancy to sheep, and I suggested to the 

 father that he should let him serve an apprenticeship to 

 some good Merino breeder, and that he should after that 

 buy him a good flock of pure bred sheep. He followed my 

 advice and to-day this boy is one of the most successful 

 breeders in Vermont, is known wherever Merino sheep 

 penetrate, and, notwithstanding that the wool market has 

 been on the decline almost ever since, he has secured an 

 ample competence, and has had as interesting an experi- 

 ence as one could wish, spite of discouragements. 



Among the many beneficial results attained by the New 

 England Agricultural Society, nothing is so apparent to me 

 who have been intimately connected with it since its for- 

 mation, as the impetus and encouragement which it has 

 given to the improvement of our animals. As a direct 

 result of generous competition at one of its earliest Fairs, 

 a young man just starting a herd of Short Horns, instead 

 of berating the judges, when he lost the first premium, had 

 the good sense to see wherein he failed, and- to-day stands 

 as perhaps the foremost Short Horn breeder in New Eng- 

 land, and is worth 1200,000 which he has made in the 

 business. 



