Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1877-08-21
agricultural.
From the Golden Rule.
Uncle JOe's Tdik with the Boys.

have fully made up their minds that they
will not be farmers. You feel that you
are not fitted for it many long to become
mechanics. You 60 to your daily labor
as the slave to his task, feeling that you
are compelled to do that which you have
90 taste for, and which you are not well
suited to perform; or in other words,
that your life is hedged in on every side.
If you will stop to analyze those feelings
you will find that Oftentimes they come
up because you feel just little lazy.
Haying and harvesting are hard work
at the best. The mower and reaper have
done much for you, but the crops Of grass
and grain cannot be harvested without
much sweaty, hard work. You work
hard, often too hard, one day, but don't
feel like doing anything the next, and as
the work must be pushed if it is good
weather, it is at such times you will find
yourself saying, al hate farming"
have used the term "lazy," yet do
not mean it. do not mean that you lack
energy, or ambition, for you are first and
foremost in every picnic or any doing
that is got up in your neighborhOOd that
calls out the energies Of the young peo-
pie. One reason why you feel so, Is be-
cause you are growing fast, and your
muscles have not yet become hardened so
that you can endure a long season of hard
work. If you take good care Of yourself
YOU will get past this after while. No
doubt you eat too much, you give your
stomach more than it can DO and do well.
You know how it is if you are loading
hay or grain and the man on the ground
passes it to you faster than you can well
take it, your load don't look very well,
and is liable to turn over. You often
use yourself just in that way,
What have SAID about eating may be
applied to drink; you drink too much
cold water. The kidneys can't do the
amount OF work well that you give them
to 10, so it happens that when the pre-
vious day was very warm and you drank
much water, you feel q soreness in the
back Just above the hips, your head feels
bad, and you say you don't feel like work,
and don't like farming anyhow. This
habit Of drinking SO much cold water in
the harvest field is a very bad thing. |
say habit" for it is nothing else You
viii notice the older people don't drink
near as much as the boys; they have
learned better. When you 90 TO your
dinner you drink two or three glasses of
water at the table And all this cold
water has been taken when you are very
warm. Now, you would not give your
horses all they want when they are very
warm 50 you see that you don't take as
good care OF yourself as you do Of your
team.
You all well know that it is i good
plan, after your team has worked hard
all day, and sweat much, to clean them
after supper, give them good bedding,
and in the morning they will come out
bright and nice. Now, &c you would DO
so with your own body you would feel
much better. You only want one pail OF
water the horse-barn is a good place.
Ii you will but put 4 pail Of water IN the
sun at noon j, will be JUS; right when you
use it. A sponge or cloth is all you want,
and you will ind that you can clean your
body in half the time you can 4 horse.
Il you wish TO feel well, don't try to sleep
in the shir, you have worked in, but after
YOU have sponged your body put on a
And above al things, don't
sleep where the wind viii blow on you
| have said this much to remind you Of
a few things that many Of you know
already.
Now, let Us turn our attention to those
who are fully determined to leave the
farm, aud are anxious TO become mechau-
les. As business is now, you will find it
very difficult to obtain 4 situation in any
good shop as an apprentice where it would
be 10 your advantage, to say nothing Of
very low wages. But, while you arc
waiting for better times, there Is consid-
cradle mechanical skill that you can &C
quire lust as well on the farm as any
where. If you have laid by little
money, you can buy square, hand-saw,
hai.inch, inch-and-a-half chisels, brace
and set Of bits, a try-square and for
planes you will want jack-plane, short
POINTER and short smOothing-plane. Now,
with these tools you can do many things
but l would counsel you to buy good
ones. You will have to pay more. but
they are worth more. And then you
must learn to take care Of them. You
can learn that as well on the farm as any
where, and you may rest assured it will
be about the first thing the foreman Of any
good shop will teach you, to take good
care Of the tools and keep them in their
proper place.
To keep your saw in order will require
much practice no directions can be given
that will be Of much benefit to you but
If you are determined to learn and can
find some good old man who can do such
things well, that will kindly show you
how to hold the file and how to shape
each tooth, it will be Of great service to
you. Whether you will ever learn to use
tools or not depends on how well you ike
such things, and how much patience and
perseverance you have. 1t is a hard
thing to learn, and but few comparatively
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