134 
American Agriculturist, February 17,1923 
Shall We Urge Our Boys To Be Farmers? 
Or Is It Best To Let Them Choose Their Own Vocation and Then Guide Them? 
W HY should we ? It is a big thing 
to be the backbone of the world. 
And that is the place a farmer 
holds, standing second to none, 
unless it is to the minister and to the doctor 
—but the three are so kindred in importance 
that it is hard to give a prominence to one 
over the others. Our ministers can teach us 
peace and happiness; our doctors can teach 
us such care of our physical beings that we 
can get the maximum efficiency out of them; 
but, even with well minds and well bodies, 
none could live without sustenance. 
Keenly do we realize the importance of our 
job when we learn of the backwardness in 
every way, and of the hardships of their 
people, of the countries in which agriculture 
has not been developed. 
To be a successful farmer in these days 
takes an intelligent man. There are few 
occupations in which a man must know so 
many different lines. We do not often think 
of just the breadth this covers, and surely 
it never has been impressed upon our boys 
and girls. 
The present-day farmer must understand 
not only kinds of soils and their adaptability, 
but how to change the composition that cer¬ 
tain profitable plant life thereby will do bet¬ 
ter; he must understand animals, from Their 
diseases to the food they need to give the best 
paying results; he must be a mechanic and 
a good repair man; he should make himself 
into a scholar, that he may understand better 
and put to good use the knowledge which his 
government goes to great effort to obtain 
for him. This is only a smattering of the 
maze of things he must know. We always 
have realized that farm work develops the 
best in man physically, but we have not real¬ 
ized that it is a great business in which to 
bring out the best in man mentally—if the 
man will let it. 
Where a Man is a. Cog in a Wheel 
Recently it was my good fortune to go 
through one of the largest manufacturing 
plants in the world. That visit gave me seri¬ 
ous thoughts. I would be sorry to see a farm 
boy, particularly one who would have to fol¬ 
low the general routine of the work, go into 
such a place to work—and I know several 
who think if they could get into that par¬ 
ticular shop to work, it would be the making 
of them. 
The final accomplishments growing out of 
a system where not a second of time or an 
atom of man’s energy are wasted are over¬ 
whelming, but the men’s individual Work, 
with the exception of the few who might 
win promotion, is cramping to their person¬ 
alities and abili¬ 
ties. They were 
doing the same 
little thing — per¬ 
haps it was driv¬ 
ing a half dozen 
nails or dropping 
a half dozen drops 
of solder — over 
and aver, hundreds 
of times a day for 
hundreds of days, 
over and over! 
They did not have 
the satisfaction of 
creating an article 
—only one tiniest 
part of it. What 
does a job like that 
bring out of a man 
in comparison with 
what farming 
might. 
* 0 
urging an actual hardship upon them. The 
present financial conditions are precarious. 
Though it is a sure fact that farmers never 
again will allow themselves to be trodden un¬ 
der the feet of people of other occupations. 
They will have more and more to say about 
their own business affairs. 
But the biggest reason why we have no 
business to urge our boys to be farmers is, 
that it is their right to choose for life the 
work they like best. If it is farming, en¬ 
courage them in it. If it is something else, 
then be patient, encouraging and understand¬ 
ing. With some children it is easy to see 
their inclinations toward the work in which 
they will make the greatest success. It is 
the best-liked work that will bring, a full 
measure of usefulness and happiness to the 
individual and to the world.— Mrs. Eliza¬ 
beth M. Hoag, Oneida Co., N. Y. 
A Farm Boy Who Decided Later- 
And Made Good 
F 
lATHER, what will you give me a 
month to come home and help farm?” 
“John, I will not give you anything. 
In the first place, this farm isn’t paying. 
There is some debt against it now, and there 
isn’t enough coming in to meet expeifses; be¬ 
sides, you will make a better business man 
than you will a farmer, and you won’t have 
to work so hard.” 
Ephriam Burket was a good man, a kind 
father, and an active citizen. He had raised 
his family well, had helped to start a grange 
thirty years before, had built a room in 
which it met, and was an active man in com¬ 
munity affairs all his life. He really felt that 
he was giving his son good advice. , 
His son, John W. Burket, about whom this 
story is built, had gone to Philadelphia, re¬ 
ceived a business education, and was ready 
to enter into a partnership which promised 
at least moderate success. His prospects in 
the business world were not only alluring, 
but promising. In some way, however, the 
call of the home farm brought him back to 
Sinking Valley, a beautiful three-cornered 
limestone section in which a hundred lime¬ 
stone farms were settled before the nine¬ 
teenth century. 
A Case of ‘‘Before and After” 
There had been a hundred years of farm¬ 
ing on the broad acres owned by Ephriam 
Burket. Hay and grain had been sold year 
after year. As long as a field would yield a 
good hay crop, it was left standing. Al¬ 
though the farm was naturally one of the 
best in the valley, corn would yield only 
75 bushels or less of ears to the acre. It was 
a fairly good yield when wheat yielded 15 
bushels per acre. 
That the yields now average over 135 bush¬ 
els of ear corn to the acre and 30 bushels 
of wheat is- ample testimony to the ability 
of John Burket as a farmer and to his wis¬ 
dom in returning to the farm. As to profits 
on the farm, l\fr. Burket says he never ex¬ 
pects to be wealthy, but he also says that 
there is not a year of the last twenty-five 
that has left him with a loss. The season 
of 1921, when very few farmers made any 
money, and when a great many lost heavily, 
came nearest to robbing him of profits. 
“Good live stock and good line fences” 
were the two aims Mr. Burket held before 
him when he took over the home farm. The 
first pure-bred stock secured was four Shrop¬ 
shire ewes and a ram from the A. J. Cassatt 
farm, near Philadelphia. Ever since that 
time his, farm has been known as the best 
source of Shropshires in Blair County. He 
has maintained rather uniformly a flock of 
twenty-two ewes. Medium and poor indi¬ 
viduals are culled out; breeding rams are 
kept until two years of age, because Mr. 
Burket realizes that both his reputation and 
the performance of the rams are at stake, 
and he prefers that both the purchaser and 
himself be assured of satisfaction. Inci¬ 
dentally, his wool has been sold at a premium, 
because it is always clean and of good quality. 
Has No Use for Tractor 
“I have no use for a tractor,” says Mr. 
Burket. The reason may lie partly in the 
quality of his horses. In 1908 he got his 
first Percheron, and since that time has never 
been without some registered horses. His 
best crop, however, he considers his Berk¬ 
shire hogs. It was 1912 before he got into 
registered hogs, but since that time they have 
been a stand-by. He has them because they 
produce pork. A few animals have been sold 
as breeders, but the chief aim is pounds,of 
pork. From that standpoint good blood has 
been a paying proposition. 
A factor that has contributed largely to 
Mr. Burket’s success is his inherent desire 
for knowledge and his willingness to accept 
that which promises to help him. He feels 
that the State College is-a very large factor 
in his success. About fifteen years ago he 
heard Professor M. S. McDowell give a dis¬ 
cussion on the famous fertilizer plots at State 
College. The next fall he attended the Penn¬ 
sylvania Farmers’ Week at the college, espe¬ 
cially to study those fertilizer plots. 
Neighboring farmers were convinced that 
acid phosphate 
‘‘soured the 
ground.” The fer-| 
tilizer plots, how-' 
ever, proved to him 
that 16% acid' 
phosphate was ab¬ 
solutely necessary 
to profitable crop 
growing. He came 
home aqd has used 
that “souring” 
material since. 
While at college he 
inspected their 
corn, which was 
better than he was 
then growing, and 
he said to him¬ 
self : “John, you’ll 
do well if you ever 
raise corn like 
that.” 
We might be 
It Won’t Be Long Before the Cows Will Be Back in the. Pasture 
(Continued on p. 142) 
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