Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 311 



paint first on a small piece of cloth. Drive stakes and have cords at 

 the corners to lasli it down with. Regular tent canvas is better, but 

 costs more. 



Fakm Boys. 

 Mr. W. L. Curtis, Clyde, Ohio. — Fifty years ago my eyes first 

 greeted the light among the eternal and grand old lulls of Yermont, 

 and at the early age of seven I was set at farm work, such as pick- 

 ing up potatoes, apples and small stones, and as I grew larger, was 

 allowed to pick up larger stones, also brush and chunks on the fal- 

 low, and as I grew on I learned to drive team and hold plow on 

 stony side hills, where my sliins were well barked, and my abdomen 

 well punched with plow handles left nearly sharp enough for fence 

 rails, instead of being squared off and rounded as they should have 

 been by the maker. I also learned to swing the scythe where cob- 

 ble stones made plenty of work for the grindstone. Well, in those 

 days, what else should the boys do but farm ? Burlington, our county 

 seat, fifteen miles away, would not be visited more than two or three 

 times during minority, and then not to tarry over night. There 

 were but few stores, and few mechanics ; hence the draft for clerks 

 and apprentices was light, and also for teachers ; and as everybody 

 must work, what should they do but farm ? When I arrived at four- 

 teen years, my father, as every sensi1)le man should do, who has a 

 number of boys and no land, took his departure to the west, and 

 brought up in Huron county, Ohio. Here M'as woods on woods, 

 some whole townships with not a dozen families ; but a poor man's 

 labor would bring a good living, with plenty of chills and fever; yet 

 us boys had no hills to climb, no stones to pick up, and no Canada 

 thistles to bind, and land cheap, if wages were low. Had I a hun- 

 dred boys, and never so many stones, I never would set one of them 

 to picking them up, unless I made a bee, or in some way diverted 

 their minds from that (to them) most discouraging of all work. At 

 that time there seemed here, no less than in Vermont, no opening 

 for boys but the farm. But the Erie canal and steamers on Lake 

 Erie were pouring in the innnigrants, before whom the big woods 

 soon melted away, and villages and cities began to multiply, canals, 

 telegraphs and railroads became the order of the day, each with its 

 great vacuum to be supplied from the most promising of our farmer 

 boys. The demand for teachers had also greatly increased, and' 

 where the bo)\s had been M'orking fur ten to fifteen dollars per 

 month, they could now get twice that, and at lighter work. Boys. 



