•  O.  lion.uy, 
^Try  H  oj^ 
Published  Weekly  by  The  Rural  Publishing  Co., 
o33  W.  30tli  St.,  New  York.  Price  One  Dollar  a  Year. 
Entered  as  Second-Class  Matter.  June  26.  1879.  at  the  Post 
Office  at  New  York.  N.  Y..  under  the  Act  of  March  3.  1879. 
NEW  YORK,  MAY  12,  19: 
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Back  -  to  -  the  -  Lander  Discusses  Farming, 
CTIOOL  PROPAGANDA. — Coining  and 
going.  it  is  42  years  since  I  first  began 
reading  The  R.  N.-Y.  It  is  the  first 
publication  given  to  fanning  and 
farmers  that  I  ever  saw.  T  was 
raised  on  a  farm,  and  through  the 
efforts  of  my  school  teacher,  who  .for  any  reniiss- 
ness  always  cautioned  me.  “You  must  do  better 
than  that  if  you  do  not  want  to  be  a  farmer  all 
your  life.”  I  became  impressed  with  the  belief 
and  idea  that  such  a  fate  would  be  an  awful 
HIRED  FARMERS.— I 'have  had  all  kinds  of 
farmers,  from  the  agricultural  college  graduate  to 
an  Italian  railroad  track  walker.  Some  said  that 
they  did  not  know  much,  and  it  turned  out  they 
were  right;  others  admitted  that  they  knew  it  all. 
and  it  turned  out  that  they  did  not  know  as  much 
as  those  who  admitted  that  they  did  not  know  much. 
Taking  it  all  in  all,  the  track  walker  ran  truer  to 
form  than  any  of  them.  He  was  only  hired  to  take 
care  of  the  stock  during  the  Winter.  lie  claimed  to 
have  learned  to  take  care  of  animals  back  in  Italy, 
kept  silent.  He  changed  the  reins  from  one  horse 
to  the  other.  Later  I  saw  him  do  the  same  thing  a 
second  time,  but  could  not  stand  it  for  the  third. 
“Were  you  not  told  which  side  of  the  pole  those 
horses  are  used  to  working?”  "Yes.  but  I  get  bet¬ 
ter  results  by  working  them  either  side.”  I  was 
squelched.  He  had  occasion  to  lead  a  cow  to  a 
neighboring  farm.  He  put  a  rope  around  the  cow's 
neck  and  then  put  a  turn  of  it  around  her  lower  jaw. 
When  he  got  to  his  destination  the  cow's  mouth  was 
bleeding  freely.  His  alibi  was :  “1  don’t  know  when 
life  sentence.  Therefore,  by  profession,  I  am  a  civil 
engineer.  My  work  has  been  pioneer,  ahead  of  the 
pick  and  shovel  for  a  railroad,  and  geographic,  es¬ 
tablishing  the  heights  of  the  hills,  or  plotting  the 
course  of  a  river,  always  out  of  doors  where  the 
farms  are.  When  I  had  years  enough  and  experience 
enough  to  realize  that  my  old  schoolmaster  was  a 
bad  propagandist,  and  had  earned  money  enough,  I 
bought  a  farm  and  ran  it  with  hired  farmers.  They 
were  hand-picked  and  had  the  color  of  good  refer¬ 
ences,  but,  like  some  apples,  they  soon  got  rotten, 
and  the  only  time  they  wanted  to  see  me  was  the 
first  day  of  each  mouth,  Sundays  not  excluded. 
and  my  stock  came  through  the  Winter  in  splendid 
shape  at  two-thirds  the  usual  cost  in  feed. 
THE  AGRICULTURAL  GRADUATE.— But  the 
agricultural  graduate,  of  whom  I  expected  most! 
Just  two  instances  to  show  his  farm  value.  He  had 
been  informed  which  side  of  the  pole  the  horses  were 
worked.  One  day  I  watched  him  hitch  them  with 
the  positions  reversed,  saying  nothing,  thinking  he 
would  shift  them.  When  he  had  snapped  the  reins 
to  the  bit  rings  he  discovered  something  wrong: 
stepping  back  and  viewing  things  critically  he  ex¬ 
plained  :  “There  is  something  that  I  cannot  account 
for.  These  reins  get  out  of  adjustment  so  often.”  I 
she  did  it,  but  I  suppose  when  she  ran  into  the  fence; 
but  the  old  man  (me)  will  rear  now,  for  she  has 
knocked  out  her  upper  front  teeth.”  This  is  almost 
unbelievable,  but  it  is  truth,  and  he  had  been  a 
County  Agent  and  Demonstrator  before  he  came  on 
my  farm. 
THE  COLLEGE  AND  THE  MAN.— I  am  not  con¬ 
demning  the  college  on  account  of  the  product  that 
I  drew,  for  I  know  many  men  who  are  splendid  citi¬ 
zens  and  efficient  farmers  who  have  been  turned  out 
by  the  agricultural  colleges,  but  I  do  claim  that  you 
cannot  take  a  young  man,  put  him  through  college 
and  turn  him  out  ready  for  immediate  success  unless 
