Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1914-09-01
Put More Brains Into Farming.

| The best of farmers realize very keen.
ly the supreme Importance of wise and
efficient farm management. 1t means
so much to the final outcome. The
man who is student of his farm very
soon gains the conviction that the sub
ject is bigger than he is; that he needs
all the help, both physical and mental,
that be can employ to make things
come out right. And then, with the
best of forecast, he Is subject to the haz
ard of the weather which often sets
him back and thwarts him in his wisest
and best endeavors. As one farmer once
remarked to US who had formerly been
a railroad engineer and q good one too:
~ used TO think that railroading could
beat any vocation in compelling q man
to keep his wits on their feet all the
time; but farming, il you do it right, can
| beat the railroad twice over"
Some men get discouraged in trying to
do as well as they know. There are 80
many hindrances in the way. But there
is this to be said Of the farm: 1t is a
place for the best trained brain, the
wisest foresight, and the largest use of
what science has to give If We but know
il, and there 10 no place that calls for
better business management than the
farm. Farmers as a rule do not appre-
ciate the possibilities Of their own
farms. Farming has not been consider
ed learned profession. From father to
son for many generations 1t has not been
thought necessary TO be we'll educated
in farming. II is for that reason that
you see so few young men developing
their minds and making an intellectual
study of this pursuit.
But conditions are changing. The
expense of living is increasing, the soil
is growing less and less productive 10
the hands of nine out of ten farmers.
The allurements of town life and the
hope Of winning big fortune is taking
away the best intellectual product Of
the farm. The mistaken notion that
man can never win distinction In society
by being farmer misleads host of
young men who are raised on the farm.
And then there is the strange unreason-
able idea that thousands of farmers
have that there is no need of giving their
sons special education for farming.
They will be willing to spend of their
hard earnings TO send boy through
college to make, very likely, only third
rate lawyer or doctor of him. Such
farmers lack true appreciation Of the
possibilities of first-class farming to
start with Both they and their boys
see only the work side of farming. They
do not see that there is still more
strenuous work side to every other pur-
suit il man wins its best rewards.
Outside of farming the Lord does but
mighty little to help any man along in
his vocation. On the farm he does 81
much as to deaden the desire for knowl-
edge, enterprise, brain power, individual
pride, and love Of conquest. But the
light of truer conception OF what real
farming means to the farmer himself, to
his mind as well as his hands, is dawn
ing on the world. II special education
and training is worth anything any
where it is worth it on the farm. Be-
cause SO many farmers do not see this
great truth, farming is what 1t Is, soil
impoverishment is what it is, and the
state Of individual mentality on the
farm and the low profit Of farming is
what il is.-Hoard's Dairy man.