198 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN^ ASSOCIATION. 



think; he learns to learn, " which is the most essential 

 thing anyone can learn. I heard only recently of a 

 farmer living near Champaign, who had several sons; 

 among them was one who wanted to take the agricul- 

 tural course in the University there. His father 

 laughed at the idea and said, " that it was no use to 

 go there to learn farming." Pie guessed he knew 

 more about farming than those professors at the exper- 

 iment station, and he didn't want any of his boys to be 

 spoiled by going there. But the boy persisted and 

 coaxed, until finally the old man gave his consent. As 

 the boy left, the father was heard to remark to his 

 wife: " I am afraid that boy will get high-toned notions 

 in his head and go to the dogs." The boy stayed there 

 a year or two and came home. Among other things, 

 he had learned to test the value of the crop from each 

 field by keeping a book account of all the work done 

 on and all the products sold off from that field. In 

 that way he could tell which crops were yielding the 

 greatest profits. He began this with his father's 

 fields. The old man had been in the habit of raising a 

 good deal of a certain crop because it paid well at the 

 end of the season; the boy showed by the books that 

 this crop did not pay as well as some other crops. The 

 father would hardly believe it, yet there the figures 

 were, and they could not be disputed. As a result, the 

 farmer got to raising the crops that yielded the largest 

 profits. The boy had a good many other suggestions 

 to make, which, carried out, lessened the labor and 

 increased the profits of the farm, till the old man 

 declared that he was worth all the rest of- his boys put 

 together. 



I want to emphasize this point: If your son wants to 

 go to college, send him if you are able; if not, let him 



