American Agriculturist 
tt 
THE FARM PAPER THAT PRINTS THE FARM NEWS 
Agriculture is the Most Healthful, Most Useful and Most Noble Employment of Man .”—Washington 
Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. 
Established 1842 
Volume 114 
For the Week Ending September 20, 1924 
Number 
How One Boy Changed His Mind 
The Big Problem—“To Be or Not to Be” 
N 
’O, I’m not interested in farming,” 
said Henry, and he emphasized his 
words by firmly shaking his head 
and tapping the hay rigging against 
which we were standing. The director from the 
State school of agriculture in the adjoining county 
and I had just driven into the yard of Wm. Wil¬ 
kinson, Henry’s father, and had found Henry 
coming out of the house from supper. We intro¬ 
duced ourselves saying that we were looking for 
boys who were interested in farming. Henry was 
the eleventh boy we had visited that day and his 
answer to our first question was not the first of 
its kind we had received. 
“Do you mean that you don’t like farming or 
that you have made up your 
mind not to be a farmer?” in¬ 
quired the director. “I like 
farming well enough but I can’t 
see any future in it,” replied 
Henry. “There’s not much to 
attract a young fellow to a busi¬ 
ness where a man works for al¬ 
most nuthin’. Pa’s milk checks 
for the past six months have 
scarcely paid for the feed and 
labor, say nothing of other ex¬ 
penses. I thought when I quit 
school three years ago that I 
would stick to farmin’, but what’s 
the use o’ sticking when every¬ 
thing is breakin’ against us?” 
“Farmers have been hard hit,” 
I put in, “but every cloud has 
a silver lining. The August 
By ARTHUR K. GETMAN 
MUST improve for farmers. Of course they can’t 
say just when. No one can. But the outlook 
for better conditions is worth taking a chance on, 
all business involves certain elements of 
since 
chance. My point about the young lads is just 
this: In five or six years they will be stepping in 
and assuming more of the business responsibilities 
of farming. Some will be in partnership with 
their dads, others will be renting, while still 
others will be operating their own farms. A little 
look ahead now will enable them to profit by the 
misfortunes of others. The greatest difficulty 
now is that the farmer’s dollar isn’t worth only 
“ ‘This is a good time for a young man to prepare for 
farming. One who studies agriculture now probably 
will be ready to start farming when he can buy a good 
farm business at a low price. From the long-time point 
of view farming promises as desirable a mode of life 
as ever. The present panic is causing the loss of the 
life-time savings of thousands of thrifty persons who 
happened to start farming too recently to be out of 
debt, but the man who begins when prices are at the 
bottom may actually profit by the disaster to agricul¬ 
ture.’” 
price of $2.60 for milk, and the 
better prices for wheat, corn and 
hogs make things look a little 
brighter. The farmer has been 
at the bottom of the price scale 
before but he came back after 
a few years.” 
“What’s that about prices?” 
Here is a class in mechanics at one of the New York State Schools of Agriculture, learning “how 
to do.” There is no greater need on the farm than that of a handy mechanic, and it always 
seems that a job is twice as easy when you “know how.” 
broke in Mr. 
Wilkinson who had come up behind us. “We 
don’t pose as farm price experts,” I said. “We 
stopped for a chat with Henry and you and his 
mother regarding his wanting to farm and to see 
if he was interested in taking one of the courses 
offered at the State school. The director and 
I are interested in bringing home to the older farm 
boys of this region the opportunities which are 
open to them for training in farming. Henry 
had just said that he wasn’t interested in farming 
| because he couldn’t see any future in it.” 
Well, can you blame the lad?” asked Mr. 
[Wilkinson, “with things stacked against the 
farmer the way they are?” 
“You’re right, Mr. Wilkinson,” said the di¬ 
rector, “these have been discouraging times but 
I as Getman was saying as you came up, prices are 
[looking up a little. Farmers have been in the 
, slough before. I remember my father telling of 
selling as good corn as ever grew for 12c a bushel. 
| Then in a few years came better prices.” 
“The price question is interesting and pretty 
I well tied up with what we came hereto talk about,” 
I suggested. “As I see it, the young fellows with 
plenty of good farm experience have a lot to think 
about just now. The experts, the college pro¬ 
fessors, and the United States Department of 
Agriculture all seem to agree that conditions 
about 70 per cent, as much as the laborer’s and 
factory worker’s dollar. The things the farmer 
buys are expensive and the things he sells are 
cheap. With better times in the open country, 
the farmer’s dollar will again come back to its 
100 per cent, purchasing power. The lad who 
gets ready now to farm a few years hence is 
doing what everyone wants to do on Wall Street, 
‘buy low and sell high.’” 
“That sounds a lot like guesswork to me,” 
said Henry. “How do you or anybody else know 
that’s going to happen?” 
“We don’t KNOW for a certainty that Get- 
man’s statement will come true,” said the director. 
“The only things we’re sure of are ‘death and 
taxes.’ There are men, however, who make 
a business of studying prices and financial ques¬ 
tions and with the facts which they have gathered 
over a period of a hundred years or more they are 
able to predict quite accurately what is likely to 
happen. On the point which Getman made, 
Dr. Warren of the State College of Agriculture 
has made some definite suggestions to young 
men, based on his careful studies of prices and 
agricultural conditions. Have you a copy of 
Warren’s statement?” turning to me. I fumbled 
through my brief case and produced a recent issue 
of Farm Economics. “ Here it is,’’said the director, 
and read the following: 
“Well,” said Mr. Wilkinson, “I haven’t any 
way of knowing all the facts in the case but I have 
got faith in Dr. Warren. I heard him at Farmers’ 
Week a few years ago, and he certainly knew 
what he was talkin’ about then. 
You men have set me to think¬ 
ing along a new line. Henry’s 
mother and I had about made 
up our mmds to help him get 
a job in the city, or possibly 
go to a commercial school. We 
have all talked about the oc¬ 
cupation which Henry thought 
he ought to follow. He likes 
farming and he is a good hand 
with stock and a team. He didn’t 
get along in the district school 
so he quit at 14. I wanted him 
to go on to High School, but 
he was convinced that there 
was nothing up there that would 
help him much in farming. At 
that time he figured on staying 
on here with me. I’ve got 
200 acres here and a good 
start on a Holstein herd. His 
mother and I both want him to 
have more education than we 
had.” 
Discovering the ever-present 
parental concern for the welfare 
of a son, the director was quick to fan the spark 
of interest, by suggesting: “It is for just such 
boys as Henry that schools like ours were estab¬ 
lished. We take any boy 16 years old of good 
moral character who wants to be a farmer. We 
like to get boys of Henry’s type because he has 
already had a valuable farm experience that will 
make our instruction mean so much more to 
him.” 
Henry rather reluctantly displayed a little 
interest by asking, “How long’s the course?” 
“You can come for a short winter course of a 
couple of months, for a one-year course, or for 
a three-year course. We try hard to get the boys 
to stay for the three-year course because we can 
give them so much better training,” replied the 
director. 
“I hate to admit it, boys,” ejaculated Mr. 
Wilkinson, “ but we ought not to get too interested 
in this proposition because, to be honest with you, 
I haven’t got the money to send Henry away, and 
besides if he went I would have to hire a man and 
that would mean extra expense and a good man 
is almost out of the question now anyway.” 
“You needn’t feel badly,” I said. “We have 
been visiting upwards of a hundred boys and 
their parents and the questions of hired help 
and financing are stumblers to most every one. 
(Continued on pane 196) 
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