THEN AND NOW ON THE FARM 



goes forth, and the animals yield up their lives ; 

 he commands, " multiply and replenish the earth," 

 and the land flows with milk and honey. 



Then or now ; which will j'ou choose, my young 

 reader ? If then, harden the muscles as the ox 

 hardeneth his neck, and learn to be content with 

 meager rewards. If now, train them deftly to 

 execute the commands of their master in order that 



which are helpful if controlled, hurtful if ignorantly 

 or carelessly used. True ! if he lose dominion of 

 the high mettled horse, greater destruction will 

 come than if the oxen leave the beaten road ; but 

 what American boy would exchange the former for 

 the latter ? 



Ninety-eight per cent, of all the people of the 

 world who are mature and able bodied have to put 

 forth a fair amount of energy in order to gain a 

 livelihood. This is the law, but it does not preclude 

 "lots of fun" for the young and equal pleasures 

 for the old. 



Even those oxen, if they be but a year old, may 

 be made to yield their quota ; if a boy only have a 

 longing for dominion, bounding blood and six feet of 

 rope, he may try his speed and bottom, learn some 

 valuable lessons in physics and get more fun to the 

 square inch than can be found anywhere outside of 

 a circus tent. 



As the writer stood for the first time on the prairies 

 of the West and saw a gang of six sulkey plows 

 come sweeping straight-away down six-mile corn 



all of the forces of na- 

 ture may be brought 

 under dominion ; de- 

 velop them in order 

 that they may nourish 

 and sustain the higher 

 powers which origi- 

 nate create and direct. 

 Imitate nature and 

 store up energy, phy- 

 sical mental, moral 

 and financial, and store 

 them according to law, 

 or logically, in the or- 

 der given. Horticul- 

 ture and agriculture 

 should be only the ap- 

 plication in the most 



effective way of laws already operative. The man 

 with the cultivator has somehow discovered that a 

 straight corn row is shorter than a crooked one ; 

 that the time to kill weeds is before they grow, and 

 that horse power and steel are more effective 

 instruments of culture than bent knees and finger- 

 nails. As he rides to church in his carriage he 

 enjoys the rewards that come frorn the discovery 

 and application of laws which are inexorable ; laws 



Fifty Years Ago Plowing was a Constant Warfare ; To-day it is Victory." 



rows, and realized that every "bout" meant five 

 acres cultivated, he could but look back to the time 

 when a boy was given one of those hoes which were 

 never sharp and never wore out, and was set to 

 digging in that checker-board garden or in that 

 inverted, clayey, undrained, blue grass sod, where 

 a family of ten boys could find constant employ- 

 ment for two months. There are many of those 

 old boys living yet who cannot take a long breath 



