Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
227 
If I get an idea they soon catch it, and then try to see if they 
can’t beat me. But if my boy has got a talent for an engineer, I 
propose to help him in that. If he has not a taste for farming, I 
don’t think it is any disaster for our boys to go to any occupation 
in life that they are best fitted for. 
Mr. Porter. I don’t know that I should have said any thing on 
this subject if it had not been for the young men that I see around 
us. I know this has agitated the farmers of the United States, the 
subject of who is going to farm the land when they are gone. Well, 
I believe there will be men enough to direct our farms if we leave 
good ones. And there is no doubt but our boys will be willing to 
follow in our foot-steps if they see that we take care of ourselves. 
If they can see their father’s from the first they can remember, 
striving to make them a home, and they see that he has added 
twenty, forty, and sixty acres until he has got a noble, good farm, 
and they see that father has not only grown, but must continue to 
grow and become a more influential man, so that the people will 
look up to him and take cognisance of his actions. The boys will 
then say: u That father of yours is just about the right man in the 
right place.” 
I tell you friends, a good deal depends upon our action in this di¬ 
rection. If we work ourselves to a physical stand-still, of course 
our boys will leave. If we work ourselves to a mental stand-still 
they are sure to leave us, but if they see that we keep getting 
better physically, mentally and morally, and everything with 
us appears to be growing, they will want to follow in the foot-steps 
of their fathers. 
T am not among the number of farmers who love to loaf about 
the villages, and neglect their farms. I belie re I am in the midst to¬ 
day, of the most respectible portion of the farmers of the State of 
W isconsin. We have hundreds all around us—intelligent men, 
who are not here, but I wish they were, and of every gentleman 
here to-day I wish to inquire, how are you educating your boys to 
become farmers? It is not all of farming to learn to plow, 
sow, reap, and mow; not by any means. It is not all of farm¬ 
ing to know how to feed sheep, hogs, and cows; not at all; 
that is only what every common laborer can do,* or any body else; 
but there is a higher and nobler calling for your boys to know, and 
know it all along. Now, how many of you gentlemen have abso- 
