Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
m 
turn, will pass back machinery and commodities to him on lighter 
conditions, and we are to find better conditions when it comes from 
us and then comes back again to us multiplied and enlarged, and 
then we enter fully into our share of that gain. And if the whole 
community has been gainers by this machinery, the farmer will in¬ 
cidentally because of his relations to the rest of the world be an equal 
gainer. Therefore, I say that farmers’ arithmetics must be long- 
sightedand comprehensive, and he must have enthusiasm in it and 
be satisfied with the results in the time of progress, even if they do 
not, in the first instance, bring back a return in mone} r . They will 
justify themselves in the return of products to the farmer, by and by. 
Mr. Robbins. Farming to pay, means intelligent farming. I have 
been trying that, so that I know that a farm to pay, must be in¬ 
telligent farming. We have got so man}^ implements that we use 
on our farms today—you have your gang plow, your seeders, your 
corn planter, reapers and rakes, so that we ride now to do the 
work of our farms, and a man must be a mechanic, an engineer, and 
a man of science who understands all kinds of machinery, to do in¬ 
telligent farming. Now I know this by experience. I have taken 
my two boys off from my farm this year and put them at some¬ 
thing else, because I thought they could make a little more, and I 
thought their wages were worth more off the farm than on; but 
I have no question, but I have lost $600 and my opinion is I 
have not saved anything. I have made it a little easier for them, 
I have got the best help I could get. I do not know but what we 
could have made money in farming if 'it was done without intelli¬ 
gence when our land was new; but I must say today, it needs an 
educated man to run a farm and pay expenses. I don’t believe an 
ignorant man could go on to my farm and pay three per cent, on 
the investment, if I would give him the use of the machinery. 
What I mean to be understood now is, that we must educate our 
boys so that they may know something about a farm, something 
about machinery, soil and other things. We must educate them 
so they will like the farm. I know how it is, boys get sick of the 
farm, and they go away just as quick as they can get away. When 
a boy is sent to school, he never comes back on to the farm again 
because he imagines it to be as it was when he left it. But if he 
could see a farm run with intelligence, I think after he got his edu¬ 
cation, he would go right back to the farm. I have got ten years 
