Norwich bulletin., 1910-01-29
A FARMERS TALK TO FARMERS
Things that Fappen Incidentally Accidentaly-How we Sometimes Surprise Ourselves we'll Others -Minnesotas School Cardens-How Boys are Ac- quainted with Exact Farming and How it Operates to Correct the Haphazard Style-keeping Boys on the Farm.


 land to raise some other fellows crops. and working your own land for your self For, mind you, each little farmer was plainly told at the beginning that whatever he could raise was to be his, to do what he pleased with. The sense or propr1etorship was brought into play and the incentive of reward added While each class was given a special time to work so as not to conflict with others, no limitation was put upon the amount each one might do, overtime, or home duties or interfere with oth- CTS. They kept at it enthusiastically till school closed in June and a hun dred and eighty-five of the original three hundred and forty at the larger school continued caring for their farms through July and August. Those who were compelled by home duties to give up their plats when school closed turn ed them over to others so as to save the results of the spring work.
 One little fellow in the very young- est grade, who was thought too small to be able to care for so big a farm as one ten feet by twenty-five. was given a plot four feet by ten. He stuck by it till his crops had matured and gathered a harvest worth at retail prices $2.70. Perhaps he wasn't a proud young farmer when he raked in this small fortune! If you'll figure out farrned as successfully as this plot of forty square feet, you'll agree with me, think, that he had a right to be proud.
 While the lads were thus being taught, greatly to their own pleasure, how to work the soil and care for the crops, they were also required to keep a strict account of all expenditures were taught simple farm bookkeeping, so that at the end of the season each one knew to a cent how much he had made or lost. In several cases their TAnOrtS lnH7ICA6 stfhn n1d af home,' for the first time, to systemat- tze their own work and expenditures.
 At one of the schools referred to . short winter course in agriculture and carpentry is now being carried on for the especial benefit of boys who have to "do chores" at home. They hold three sessions 8 week, lasting from 10 a. m. to D. m., so that these boys need not leave home till their morning work is well out of the way, and can be back in ample time for their even ing duties. Other towns are waking up, and at least three are reported as having already determined to adopt the plan this coming spring. News are getting interested in it, and, as the report says: Tt requires no great gift of prophecy to foresee the day when such farm courses will be a part of if not indeed throughout the entire corn belt"
 It's perfectly plain to see how sem sibie and easy and inexpensive this sort of farm training is. It's also clear what a tremendous practical val ue it may have in determining the minds of boys toward a farm life. Men are only boys, grown up; and boys are only men in the making. We men don't like to work for nothing. We expect or at least hope for some profit when we sow our onion heds- But can he hope to get out of it, when he is sternly ordered out on the patch in the broiling sun, to weed it? About the only reward he can look for is to Furthermore, as we men take care of our onion beds, we compare them with others that we've observed, and our spirit of rivalry is stirred. We deter bed and a bigger crop than old Hos kins. anyway. But what does the boy care about beating old Hoskins? Give him an onion patch beside a dozen lows, and he. too, will feel the spur of competition. He will work to beat the other boy if it is in his boots and brooches to do it. And, if he succeeds, the income is going to be his. He feels that he is working for himself and for the particular thing his boy heart craves. but which father can't or won't 1 buy for him.
 Don't you see? It's all perfectly nat | urel and perfectly simple. It is just taking advantage of known boy na- ture to lead the boy, not drive him, | to his own good and that of his coun- l try, f. e., to a love for the farm and i it's work. As he grows older and big 1 ger he will aspire to broader fields for l his activities and rivalries than those | given by the experimental school plats. | He will want a garden of his own by | and by; then he will want a farm of | his own, where he can try out on wid- | CT lines what he has become interested | in. and where he can have ampler l scope for winning profit or beating | 
 Why in heavens name can't we | have some of these shrewd, practical | ideas developed and practiced here in | the east. and not wait for the west to | prove them before we even think of | them?
 THE FARMER.