430 Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
liance. They are apt to take their cue from other people. As Mr. 
Main has said, they do learn by observation, they don’t read enough. 
I know farmers in our town who don’t take a newspaper. They 
have no books except the almanac, a bible, and an old spelling-book. 
They don’t seem to appreciate the necessity of an education; to 
read, to think, and to compare; so I think the first step is to get 
them awake to see their situation, and see the need of improve¬ 
ment, and to do this, farmers* clubs, etc., are having an effect. 
We are apt to desire great effects at once. It is so much easier to 
let others do the thinking than to do it yourself. It requires an 
effort to think; in fact it is harder than to labor, and the thinker, 
and the worker co-operating together, generally succeed the best. 
Then farmers work so many hours. When men work from four¬ 
teen to sixteen hours in a day, they are so exhausted that when 
they sit down by the fire, they immediately drop asleep. That, T 
think, is one reason why the young men, some of our boys, brought 
up on a farm, see a life of drudgery in it, and they naturally want 
to flee to the city. I think the best way to keep our sons at home 
is to improve ourselves at home. Surround them with plenty of 
books and periodicals, also music as much as you can. If you 
can’t do as much as we would wish, we can get a fife or a flute, and 
work up to an organ. Do it through the grange, clubs, and asso¬ 
ciations of that sort, and lift them up to the proper standard. 
Mr. Clark: I would ask if the man who excused himself, didn’t 
the next time, or soon after, make some improvement. 
Mr. Robbins: If you cannot get the average farmer here, the 
question is how can you reach him? I think they ought to be 
reached in some way. I supposed the masters of the granges gave 
all the information they got themselves, and enlightened their 
grange thoroughly. I have never been into one of those granges, 
but I have thought frequently that I could receive great benefit 
thereby. The idea I want to throw out is this. You have your 
proceedings published, in book-form and if they could be placed in 
the library of clubs and granges, and there read and discussed, they 
would be of great benefit to the farmer. I know [ have saved two or 
three hundred dollars by being here at the last meeting. I hadn’t 
time to go and tell my neighbors what information I had received 
here. If I had been master of a grange I would have appointed 
one or two special meetings, and have told my neighbors what I 
