246 Wisconsin state agricultural society . 
another fact more lamentable, which is, that many a young man, 
who can manage his college duties—who is master of Greek and 
can conquer the calculus, and who fancies he has only to lift his 
wand over the world to have it lie prostrate at his feet—finds 
when he enters upon its active duties, that he is as powerless as a 
child, with no knowledge of men and no tact for business, and 
wonders why success does not wait upon his efforts. Having mis¬ 
taken his calling ; too proud to go ba ck upon his paternal acres, 
his hopes are a wreck; his life is a failure ! Did it ever occur to 
him or to his hard-headed, hard-handed father, standing so hum¬ 
ble and deferential in the presence of his college-bred son, that in 
all the active duties of life, in the practical matters of education 
which go to make up success, the father stands as high above the 
son as the master above the pupil. 
If there is a false ambition on the parent, what shall be said of 
the child ? 
I know there are malignant fevers which infest the swamps ; that 
there are direful epidemics which scourge the world ; that the in¬ 
sidious footsteps of disease may be traced at high noon, and found 
under the deep shadows of the midnight hour; but I know of no 
disease or epidemic so capricious or hard to manage as that which 
may be denominated the “ eighteen year old fever ” in boys ! 
You may have “hoof-ail” among your cattle, or “foot-rot” in 
your sheep, but I venture to say there is no disease which so tries 
the heart and reins of the farmer, as this affliction which spreads 
among his boys! Scotch snuff won’t cure it, and counter irritants 
are powerless to arrest its progress! Nature will have its course, 
and this is one of the diseases that must have its run. Fortu¬ 
nately, its symptoms are uniform and easily detected. Usually, it 
is preceded by an eruption of bright buttons, flashy waist-coat, 
and stunning necktie. The hat, which was of the Jim Crow pat¬ 
tern, has suddenly assumed stove-pipe proportions. The pants, 
which were easy and flowing, and nicely adapted to the business 
of manual labor, have now shrunk down to the surface of the 
flesh; and the human form divine, so charitably covered with 
graceful fabrics, now skips abroad in the beautiful proportions of 
the bottled spider, or the nimble movements of the agile grass¬ 
hopper. The pulse beats high, and the blood flows quickly to 
