Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
219 
iness that, if intelligently and industriously pursued, will lead him 
not only to a competence in his old age, but to the front rank of in¬ 
fluence, as well as of distinction among his fellow men. 
Mr. Robbins. I do not see hardly how I am going to pitch into 
that paper. I am well satisfied with it, and have nothing to say. 
I don’t know much about ancient farming, and according to that 
description of it, I don’t care much about it; but so far as modern 
farming is concerned, it is all right. 
Mr. G. E. Morrow. Mr. President: That is not the kind of paper 
we generally have. I don’t know whether we ought to applaud it 
or not. But, joking aside, it occurred to me this morning to put 
this question that comes up so frequently, about the difficulty of 
keeping our sons on the farm. I want to suggest a thought that 
again comes up. It seems to me that one of the ways not to keep 
our sons on the farm is to continually refuse to admit that there is 
anything pleasant, desirable or profitable in farming; to contin- 
ally insist that men in every other calling are making money easily, 
and are having no trouble whatever. While such a paper as this 
may bear the possible criticism of making it a little too rosy, is it 
not infinitely better for those of us who are, directly or indirectly, 
interested in agriculture, to have some faith in it, and some confi¬ 
dence in it, and some enthusiasm over it? I would rather believe 
that I was going to succeed and have a good time, than believe that 
L was going to fail and go to the dogs. I want to say that farm¬ 
ing, intelligently pursued for any long series of years, must pay as 
well as any other legitimate calling on earth. If that is not true, 
then the intelligent Creator of the earth made a mistake. I do not 
believe that he ever made any such mistake. I am glad Mr. Smith 
has called our attention to the feet that, with all the disadvantages 
under which we labor to-day, there never has been a time or gene¬ 
ration in the history of the world, when we enjoyed so many of 
the practical blessings of life as in this generation. 
Compare the last twenty years with the twenty preceding it, and 
we see the world steadily advancing in every thing that makes life 
comfortable, and no class of men who ought to look up and thank 
God for the comforts of life, ought more truly to look up to God 
and be thankful, than the farmers. 
I do not wish to discourage any practicable effort to rid our¬ 
selves of those difficulties; but I wish to say that the man who has faith 
