The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-10-31


learning to have suficed in the old
| DAYS when farming consisted OF tiii-
| ing the land with simple
| and inducing nature, mainly Dy mere
| Drawn, to yield Of its generous store.
| This boy had the good fortune 10 come
| under the observation Of his employer,
| who saw by his bright eyes and quick
acouiescence hat he longed for high
er things and had. the OF a
real man in him.. The ranch-oWner
decided to put the boy to the test
and so he sent him to President Long
we'll. the sole instructions being that
the boy should be allowed to follow
his natural mechanical bent and thai
he should be put on his own re-
sources, not knowing hat his wealthy
employer stood back OF him ready
to make good financially if the boy
failed. 1t is to the everlasting credit
of this boy, and a hundred others
who show equally good spirit, that
he made good when the opportunity
was given him. Today he is a skill
ed mechanic operating a traction en-
CINE on his benefactor's ranch, and
drawing several times the money
which had sufficed him In the old days
when he was without practical skill.
But not all the ambitious boys of
the grain-belt want to be educated
away from the simpler forms OF
farming. Nor can they be spared.
And SO President Longwell is TAX
ing the raw product n converting
it into skilled mechanics who are con-
tent to go back to- the farm, run the
tractor or hitch the gasoline engine to
the 1nnumerable time
savers and labor-Savers which the in
genuity Of man is daily devising, per-
form the necessary jobs Of black
smithing and c~arpentering around the
house and barn, repair and operate
the automobile and otherwise give to
the old home place the necessary me-
chanical skill and training which
makes it unnecessary TO send to town
for repairs or repairers when some
one or other of the machines or tools
plays out.
1t is a liberal education in the no.
bility Of work to see these farm boys
in the machine shops Of the college.
They have turned, for the time being,
from planting and milking, from
blowing and reaping, and are putting
themselves by the side or boys from
the factory and the mill, the machine
shop and the foundries. They know
what they want to learn. They re-
call hours wasted and days miSspent
in a futile attempt to patch up some
machine or tool, when a little train
ing wou1d have shown in a few min
utes where the trouble lay and what
was necessary. 1t is to the everlast-
ing credit of these ambitious boys
that having been given this taste Of
mechanical knowledge, they are not
educated away from the farm. but in
ninety-nine cases out of one hundred
return to the old home place and
stand shoulder to shoulder with ia
Their or elder brother, supplementing
the work of the farmer to whom the
complicated machine was a closed
book Of mechanical mystery. They
blaze the way for a machinist-farmer
who shall dispense with Drawn, and
farm with brain.
erect these days. He has a new hired
man, one to whom there is neither
day nor night. The busy farmwife
signs with relief, for the new farm
hand eats gasoline instead Of roasts
and bakes, and tops off with 1ubri-
eating oil instead of pumpkin pies
and layer cakes. The farmer himself
feels better. because he looks forward
to the tomorrow of farm life, freed
from the perplexity of solving the
labor problem in these days of $40
hired men with thirty-cent ability.
for he has had the additional edu
cation that he craved, he has learned
to be master of his tools and his work,
he has had h horizon of his life
Wldened by a few months or possibly
a yea at college, he can see that with
his enlarged ability the financial re-
turns are greater on the farm than
in the city. And the farm gfrl-on
whom, after all, the real ask of keep
ing the boy on the farm devolves-
is satisfied, for she has a companion
and a lover more sure of himself and
his future, with a conviction of
mastery which makes him more at
tractive, and a Sureness Of self-poise
which makes him more irresistible.