purdue Vnher
•*~'E3F?Af,v
LAFAYEJTEi
VOL. LVHI.
INDIAN^ .   *)wdBPT. 5, l0O3
' •'lini 4.
NO. 36
Opportunltlee For Young Farmers.
Bdltora Indiana Farmar:
Opportunity if rightly used, means
everything to the young man with the right
Bort of stuff in him. Opportunity passed
by, whether unrecognized or neglected, is
responsible for a vast number of the failures that men make.
In taking up tbis topic it is with the
hope that many of the thousands of young
men and boys in Indiana may be helped
tc t greater appreciation of what is before them. The Parmer has thousands of
.subscribers mostly on farms, and it is
particularly the farmers' boys and young
farmers that I desire to reach. To be a
farmer's boy is a privilege. To be a farmer and a good one is an ambition worthy
of the most noble minded person. The
world is full of many fine minded men
who find farming a very attractive occupation. This is so because such a life
offers the best opportunity for pleasure,
profit and self-improvement, or intellectual development. Be farmers, not from
necessity, but rather because of a love
for the work and life on the farm.
To many boys, other industries seem to
offer greater and more attractive fields for
pleasure and remuneration. Why is this
true: Can- the average young man make*
any greater success in the city, whether
it be in commercial life or connected with
manufacturing industries? Every year
our industrial schools receive large numbers of students from the country who
take mechanical or electrical engineering.
Many of these boys take sueh work in
preference to agriculture. This year the
high schools of Indiana graduated a large
number of young fellows, many of them
country-bred boys, and next fall many of
these will be found taking a course in
some engineering or commercial college.
This is as it should be. The world is
calling for trained men on every hand,
men who can do something and do it well,
and the great industries recognize the value of college training. But why should
a very much larger number of the eonntry
boys take up lines of work entirely foreign
to that to which they have been accustomed? Is it because the great industry
of agriculture, with all of its various
branches, does not offer opportunities for
young men? Or is it because these are
not  recognized ?
At Pur.Iue we have many men who love
the farm and all its work and surroundings who are taking engineering courses.
These men will go out in time and succeed
to a greater or less degree, but their successes will not eclipse those of the men in
the agricultural courses, not will they, in
many eases, be as great as if they hnd
chosen agriculture.
In the mind of the writer, failure to see
the opportunities along agr'cultural lines
of work accounts for the large number of
young men leaving the farm. Sometimes
a boy has no liking for farming: he cares
little for animals; has no interest in the
growing crops: sees no pleasure in broad
pastures nnd green fielals; has little desire
to be a mighty influence for progress and
advancement in some country comunity.
Such boys usually have a bent for some
other worlt, or may be they have seen nothing but hard work and drudgery, through
the unintentional neglect of parents. The
smh it would be unwise to choose a life
so distasteful.
To those who are looking for pleasant
and profitable opportunities along agricultural lines, the fielo is unlimited. It is so
Tast that one who is familiar with it hesi-
tates to enter into fl  discussion which  in
volves such large problems.
Never was there a time when the agricultural work offered so much to the young
man as to-day. Parmers everywhere are
informing themselves on the best breeds
of stock, the best crops to grow, methods
of feeding, breeding anal cultivation. They
are beginning to look at the saail in a new
light. The orchard and the fruit industry, and the dairy business are studied
by men actually engaged in such work, as
they never were laefore. Competition is
strong, and if a young man expects to
take up farming as a life work, it behooves him to get the best preparation
possible.
If he does not care to be a t&trWr and
cess of farming. Some are coming to be
well-known breeders and exhibitors of live
staaa-k, others are being heard from in dairy
jin.l horticultural lines, while many are
doing their fellows good in institute work,
thus showing that the training they received fits them for various lines of farming, both general and special. Of the few
who have not gone back to the farm direct, we can point to three prominent veterinarians, two in college and experiment
station work. A member of the class of
'94 holds a splendidly paying position with
ona of the most prominent cream
separator companies; three others are
teaching agricultural schools and still another is  in   the  Division of  Soils  In  the
Harvestii g Wheat in the Valley   of   the   Saskatchewan   River.
■ yet would like to be associated with agri-
' cultural work, there are abundant opportunities for him in College and Experiment Station work, the United States Department  of  Agriculture,     as    chemists,
, bacteriologists, dairy experts, horticultur-1
ists, veterinarians, botanists, livestock ]
men and many more. Much capital is in-1
vested   in   farms   and   livestock   by   men
i who,  for one  reason  or  another,   cannot
personally conduct such work. These men j
are  calling for superintendents,    foremen:
and feeders who can manage their .several
operations, whether they be crops, or fruit,
dairy   products  or  livestock.       A     young
man   to  be  able  to  successfully   conduct
such   farms   must   have   practical   experience.    Besides this, he must be an  executive student of his business, anal tho more ,
training   he   has   had.   tbe   better  are   his
chances for *nCCM*.
We often hear such questions as: "Will it
pay?"      "What   can    I   do   when    I   gi-*t
throngh college?"    "Is there any chance
for the graduate Of an agricultural college
who does not own  a  farm?"  and  many
others.   To such we can only say that the
demand   for  such   men   is  at  present   far
: greater than the supply. Most of the men
who come to Purdue and take nn agricultural course know what they are going to
do lone before they finish. Not n single
man who took the winter course in 1903
wanted a place to work, as all had good
opportunities at home.    Most of the boys
1 who have taken agricultural courses nt
Purdue  are  found  on   farms.     Many  of
. them have come to be well-to-do. and some
quite wealthy. What is better still a very
large per cent of them are making a sne-
U. S. Department of Agriculture. All of
these men are receiving good salaries.
What is better than this, they are wide
awake anal progressive.
The necessary cost of an agricultural
(•ourse will never be a thing of regret to
the man who takes it, as it will all be
made back with big interest on the investment. No young man who has any intention of farming can afford to let such opportunities as our agricultural schools offer, pass by—if not a four-year course,
then take a shorter course. Three months'
won. on the farm will pay all expenses
for one term of the winter course at Purdue.
Young men, you can improve the old
farm by a little knowledge of fertilizers
nnd manures, or by knowing better stock,
how to breed and manage it, or by putting in a few dairy cows.
Take an agricultural conrse; get out of
the old nit: make farming a pleasure as
well as a profit by liecomlng a student of
your business. The world is looking for
men who know the how and why of things.
Will you be one? J. H. Skinner.
Purdue University, Lafayette.
Straws Show Which Way the Wind
Blows.
Editor*   Indiana   Farmer:
It is frequently said that life in our
country is unstable, compared with society in the old world.
A few things came to my notice recent-
ly indicating an established ptate. These
may be trifles, but straws show which
way the wind blows.
These all occurred not many miles from
where the writer gits:
An aged minister was recently buried
from the church of which he had been
pastor continuously  for 46 years.
A few miles from him a renter lived
33 years on the same farm. The father
died twaa years ago. The widow, sons
and daughters moved to a farm which they
bought with the money they had saved as
renters.
A harness maker in an adjoining town
has been there in the same business continuously since 1854. He is stitching and
pegging away, nearing 80 years of age.
A furniture store, established in 1826,
is in the hands of the third generation of
the same man. The proprietor claims to
have customers who have been patrons of
the firm over 60 years. These customers
have not bought all their goods all the
time from them, but this house has been
their trading place for over sixty years.
A physician over eighty years of age
has practiced medicine during all of his
active life in the village and community
where he now lives and expects to die.
Another physician. !>4 years old, recently died, who had practiced medicine 44
years in the same village.
My neighbor has a two-horse wagon
which he say-s has been in his family in
constant use for 45 years, and much of
the time has stood out doors. True, it
has had three tongues, been tired three
times, has new felloes and parts have been
replaced time and again, till not much of
the original remains. But it stands for
the wagon which the famliy bought 50
years ago.
An aged couple are living in their eighty-
third year. They have been married 62
| years. They are now living only ten miles
1 from where they were born. Their oldest
child is 61 years old. They have twelve
living children, 67 grandchildren and 48
great-grandchildren.
These straws indicate a settled state of
society and substantial prosperity, which
might be duplicated thousands of times
all over this fair land.
Eddys in the industrial and political
stream do not change the deep, steady
current of peace and substantial prosperity  enjoyed  all  over onr country.
ClarKsbnrg. W. T.
Gibson Co. Notes.
Kdltora   Indiana   Fanner:
There is a great revival in the livestock
industry in Gibson county just at this
time. Our farmers are looking for young
stock of all kinds; a number of them have
expressed themselves as going to our fair
September 7-12 for the express purpose
of buying. Speaking of fairs reminds me
there is nothing that has done the farmers so much good as the county fair, bringing as it does all types into competition
and friendly rivalry. The farmer may
select the best and hold on to it. I believe
every farmer should make some sort of
exhibit from his farm, no matter h<rw
sm?ll, at his local fair: it stimulates him
to do better, and gives a personal interest
to the annual event he can acquire in no
other way. Suppose, Mr. Farmer, yon
try it this fnll. ami see if I am not right.
The cantelonpe and watermelon crop
of Gibson county is far above the average, and by the way the so-called "Posey
connty" melon is raised in Gibson county,
the name comes by their having been shipped from Poseyville, a small town just
over the line.
Our farmers are putting in the usual
acreage of wheat.
Experts say tliat Gibson county has the
best soil  in  tbe  world  for tomatoes.
Princeton. Subscriber.