The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1898-06-10
How to Keep the Boys on the Farm,

| II u takeS Lifetime to make q good
Experienced farmer am of thai
opinion--why do not farmers give thei,
sons chancc'to become personally in.
tcrcsted in the farm!
| Very few boys will take or feel tha,
interest in the farm work thar they
would if they were directly interested in
the result of the crops. Many boys are
d'sgusted with farm life and leave '.;.
cause 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, IL few pigs, a COW or ii colt
and an acre or two to cultivate in mel
ons' 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 thcir duty to their
fathers crops. In this way boy will
be directly interested, and will feel more
independent.
There is hardly any community where
good fruit will not sell. Good pigs are
always in demand also improved fowls
and eggs.
Let me tell the boys what l heard
from the lips Of Northern man last
summer, who paid nc visit. l had
made Il sleigh, SO that could hitch a
mule to it, and put in molasses barrel
crosswisc, with an opening cut in the
side. In the ends l had bored many
holes, and stopped each with plugs.
With this I had been hauling liquid ma
nurc 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 hap
! pcncd in Pennsylvania. An old farmer
got tired Of giving his son John money,
so one day he said to him that he was
going to make 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
! in the situation, and remembered the
time when he was a boy, and he agreed
| to lend John money until his crop came
i'll. 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 will give you
| five more bushels"
That so stimulated the boy that he
said:
"Father. suppose l make seventy
bushels"
The boys face frightened and the
old mans, too.
eff you make seventy bushels l will
| give You ten more"
| New life and ambition sprang up in
that boy. Hc said, again:
| 'Supposc. father, | make eighty
bushels. Will you give me ten more
and make it ninety bushclsl"
! SO much as eighty bushels of corn Der
acre had never heen made around there ;
and the old man, thoroughly aroused at
the thought of his land making eighty
bushels of corn per acre, said:
! eli you make 100 bushels Der acre 7
will give you all my crop Of corn"
| John rose early and worked late, and
took more interest, and was better sat
isfied on the farm than ever, and the re-
suit now is that he is one of the best
farmers in that State.
But you will say, how much corn did
| M n 10 |.
ough order, plowed it deep, worked it
we'll, and watcrcd it we'll, and that is
the only thing have got against John.
lie Practiccd a little deception on his
good old father.
| In his fathers stable lot was large
bank OF manure, and on the lower side
of the pile was an abundance of liauid
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 tits acre Of corn
every time it needed water, and in that
way he made Ia5 bushels Of corn and
won the crop Of his father; and though
the old man had corn, he went about
boasting that John had beaten him out
OF his crop, and that his land had made
1a5 bushels Of corn per acre.
Now, boys, by all means act fair be
| honest and truthful; deal fairly and
squarely with all men, but show the
energy and pluck of John, and you will
surely succeed on the farm. --- John O.
Otey in Southern Planter.
|