TENANT-FARMERS. 25 



solutely necessary that he should work in all respects as a common 

 labourer, if his means and circumstances in life can afford him to go 

 about it otherwise ; what I mean is, that he should take an active part 

 in all the operations in a systematic and effective way, so as to insure 

 his becoming perfectly acquainted with them all, which is necessary 

 to secure his practical education being complete. On entering a farm 

 for instruction, the young man should of course arrange to pay the 

 farmer a certain fee for it, and on this understanding he should have 

 every attention paid him by the farmer, in so far as the latter is able to 

 give him information, both practically and theoretically. This informa- 

 tion should consist chiefly in dealing with the cultivation of the land, 

 the rotations of cropping, the rearing of live stock, and the selling of 

 both stock and crop ; and, besides, the farmer should give him full in- 

 structions in regard to the valuation of land, crops, and stock, not only 

 in connection with his own farm, but in regard to those on the farms of 

 others in the neighbourhood. The pupil should draw out for himself a 

 complete plan of the farm, and of the farm-buildings in connection with 

 it, noting the character of land in each field, and the kind of crops on it, 

 and also that proposed for rotation next year. In short, the pupil 

 should, if he mean to profit by his residence on the farm, lay his whole 

 mind to learn all about it, and about every plant and beast reared upon 

 it, and to absorb, as it were, into his own mind all the knowledge of the 

 farmer under whose instruction he is being trained ; as, unless he do this, 

 he will not profit by his residence with him as he ought to do, and as is 

 absolutely necessary for his after success in the profession he has taken up. 

 Having remained one year on a farm in this way, he should remove 

 to another in a different part of the country, where farming is carried out 

 on approved principles and under a highly-qualified man. There he 

 should remain one year also, working with his own hands, and gathering 

 all the information he possibly can on every branch of the business con- 

 ducted on the farm. This change of scene he should seek, although he 

 may have enjoyed the privilege of living on his father's farm, as by so 

 doing he obtains a wider acquaintance with the practical details of his 

 intended profession than he could get by remaining at home 



" Home-keeping youths have ever homely wits." 



Afterwards he should go for a like period to a farm in another part of 

 the country ; and having done this, he ought, if he have been at all persever- 

 ing and observant, after three years' experience on three farms in three 

 different parts of the country, be well acquainted with practical farming, 

 and prepared to enter on a course of higher studies to fit him for pursu- 

 ing farming on his own account. 



