12 



and trims his sails, so will come success or failure. Hence- 

 forth he has one governing thought, one aim, and to that every- 

 thing is subordinate. From the first, everything tends to give 

 him a full and clear idea of his chosen business, its duties and 

 its difficulties, and what he must do to secure its amplest re- 

 wards and achieve its highest triumphs. 



Now, how is it with the education of farmers ? There are 

 exceptions, of course, but not enough to disturb the general 

 rule. The farmer sends his son to the village school, where 

 he learns to read and write and cypher. He is set to do the 

 light chores about home, until, gaining in strength, he is put to 

 harder tasks. As he grows up, he learns to plant, to mow, to 

 harvest, to perform the ordinary work of the farm, but only in 

 the way he sees his father perform these labors. He may or 

 may not observe the rotation of crops, the application of partic- 

 ular fertilizers, the production of certain results, but if he does, 

 he knows not, thinks not, of the reason of the thing. To all 

 intents and purposes, he is performing a mere mechanical task. 

 Whether or not he is to he a farmer, whether that is to be the 

 business of his life, remains undetermined. Neither he nor 

 his father have come to any settled understanding upon this. 

 Like Mr. Micawber, he is waiting for something to turn up, — 

 some opportunity to go to the city, to go to sea, to go into 

 •trade, — but all the time with mind unfixed, with no clear pur- 

 poses, no distinct aims. If he remains upon the farm, and 

 becomes a farmer, the chances are that he does it from the 

 force of circumstances, and because that seems to be the only 

 resource left him, and not from choice. And then he goes on 

 as he began, and as his father has gone before him. Now what 

 is needed is, and it is of primary importance, that the young 

 novitiate for farming should be trained to his business, with the 

 understanding from the first that it is to he his husi7iess — one in 

 which he is to earn his living and acquire a competency, one 

 in which, from the start, he shall be spurred on by the lauda- 

 ble ambition to excel and make his mark. Why should there 

 not be in this the same method and system as in other em- 



