Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1898-06-16
How to Keep tho BOYs Oh tho Farm.

How to Keep tho Boys on tho Farm.
If it takes lifetime to make
good experienced farmer-apd l an
of that opinion-why do not farmers
give their sons a chance to become
personally interested in the farm2
Very few boys will take or fee
that interest in the farm work that
they would if they were directly
interested in the result of tho crops
Many boys are disgusted with farm
life and leave because they do not
directly share in any OF the crops
and all they get is their board and
clothes. Let them have their own
fowls, a few pigs, a cow or colt
and an acre or two to cultivate in
melons, potatoes, Strawberries, grapes
corn or anything they desire to plant
Give them the team and time to
work the land. Let the condition be
that their crops must furnish them
pocket change, and they must do
their duty to their fathers crops.
In this way boy will be directly
interested and will feel more indie
pendent.
There is hardly any community
where good fruit will not sell. Good
pigs are always in demand also i'm
proved fowls and eggs.
Let me tell the boys what l heard
from the lips of Northern man last
summer, who paid me visit. I had
made me sleigh so that | could
hitch a mule to it, and put in a mo-
lasses barrel crosswise, with an OPEN
ing cut in the side. In the ends l
had bored many holes, and stopped
each with plugs. With this l had
been hauling liquid manure and
spreading it on the land. My friend
asked me what the barrel was for,
and when l told him he said it re-
minded him of an occurrence that
happened in Pennsylvania. An old
farmer got tired of giving his son
John money, 30 one day he said to
him that he was going to make a
change. He would give him an acre
of his best land to put in corn, and
he must make his pocket money from
that acre. John said, "What am
going to do for money while the corn
is growing?" The old man took in
the situation, and remembered the
time when he was a boy, and he
agreed to lend John money until his
crop came in. The bargain was
made and the father said:
"John, that acre of land ought to
make fifty bushels of corn. 1t has
done it. If you make sixty I will
give you five more bushels"
That 80 stimulated the boy that he
said:
"Father, suppose I make seventy
bushels ?"
The boys face frightened and the
old mans, too.
eff you make seventy bushels |
will give you ten more"
New life and ambition sprang up
in that boy. lie said again
"Suppose, father, make eighty
bushels ; will you give me ten more
and make it ninety bushels ?''
So much as eighty bushels of corn
per acre had never been made around
there; and the old man, thoroughly
aroused ut the thought of his land
making eighty bushels of corn per
acre, said
eff you make 100 bushels per acre
| will give you all my crop of corn"
John rose early and worked late
and took more interest and was bet
ter satisfied on the farm than ever,
and the result now is that he is one
of the best farmers in that State.
But you will say, how much corn
did John make2 IIe got his land in
thorough order, plowed it deep,
worked it well, and watercd it well,
and that is the only thing have got
against John. IIo praoticcd little
deception on his good old father.
In his fathers stable lot was a
large bank Of manure, and on the
lower side of the pile was an abund.
ance of liquid manure. After the
old man was asleep John and his
younger brother would steal out and
get the buckets and would water
every hill of this acre of corn every
time it needed water, and iii that
way he made 1875 bushels of corn
and won the crop of his father; and
though the old mar had corn, he
went about boasting that John had
beaten him out of his crop, and that
his land had made 1876 bushels of
corn per acre.
Now, boys, by all means act fair; /;
be honest and truthful; deal fairly
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