greatest forests, too, disappear, but the harvests of agriculture are everlasting harvests. Sooner or later every country must turn to agriculture to support its people; more than this, land properly handled will increase, not only in value, but in producing power. Lands in England, cropped for 300 years, are today producing greater yields per acre than our boasted Red River Valley lands that have been run-not farmed -but little more than 25 years.

Difference Between Farm and City Home.

There is another thought I wish to leave with the boys tonight and that is the great, the vital difference between the landed home and the city home. I do not wish to reflect upon any home, but, have you ever thought of it, boys, one of these homes has to be supported by its owner, while the other supports the one who owns it. It matters not how costly the city home is, nor how beautiful its lawns and surroundings, when the hand that has made it ceases for any reason to bring money from the outside to support it, it no longer affords shelter for those who trust it. have seen it, you have seen it, just when the widow and her children most needed its protection, they had to go out from under its helpless roof, because it could not feed them, it could not clothe them, it could not pay its own taxes. Will a landed home do this? Never. If properly handled and those living there are taught that farming is a profession, a trade, one to be mastered and one to be proud of, it will continue to provide, not only for itself, but for them; yes, it will feed and clothe the widow and the fatherless and it will pay its own taxes. And I want to say to you, young ladies, if I were you, I don't care how bright or learned a minister, doctor, lawyer or merchant is, if he asked me to marry him and did not own a little piece of land somewhere and know how to hanIdle it. I would never have him in the world.

Where to Get It.

Almost invariably, the best place to buy the land is right where you are. Horace Greeley's advice was very good in his day, but were that good man living now, I believe he would say, "Go east, young man, or stay where you

are." Going west is all right, but many are going too far west. They are settling upon over-boomed, dry sections, never meant for general agriculture, and the money they must spend in traveling and the losses and hardships they must meet with, would make them a good home almost anywhere among friends, fruits, old associations and good markets. Get after a little land right where you are. You may have to go a little way off, but don't spend money going far. Nine times out of ten the one who goes to digging right where he is will come out ahead.

Some years ago we opened a Reservation just north of where I live in Dakota. At just noon, a certain day, at a certain signal, all who cared to were allowed to rush out onto this land and select their claims. There was but one condition for holding a claim-they must at once begin improvements, cellar, well, or something. Many rushed out on horseback, some on foot, others in buggies, wagons, or on wheels. Among them were two school teachers with an old white mare hitched to a "buckboard." Each of them had a spade under her arm, with which to begin "improvements." So much unusual racket soon put the old mare be- yond control, and for miles, with the bits in her teeth, she tore across the prairies. At last, one of the wheels struck a big stone and out went one of the school-ma'ams. Several gallant horsemen closed around quickly to offer assistance, but before they could and before the unhorsed teacher even tried to get to her feet, she began digging with all her might, and it proved an excellent claim. She had plenty of witnesses, too. That's the way, young man, begin to dig right where you are, and stick to it.

A Large Farm Not Necessary.

When I say there is not a young man or boy in this room who cannot own a self-supporting landed home, I mean it. One reason why so many fail to do this and think they cannot, is they imagine a farm must be a great, big piece of land from one to five hundred acres. This is not at all so. The fact is, the greatest drawback to western farming today is too many acres. Ten or 20 acres, made to do its best, will keep any man busy and make any man a

sure living. Forty acres is a great, big farm, and but few men can make 80 acres begin to do what it is capable of doing. Prof. F. L. Cook, out in the western part of my state, took over six thousand dollars' worth of vegetables and small fruit off from just nine acres. This was almost desert land at that, but it was irrigated, and every inch of it handled right.

If I lived in one of your villages, I should want to live out on the edge of it, two or three miles out would suit me best, out where I could at least have a building lot of five or 10 acres. Then I would be independent, whatever my trade or profession, and whatever became of it.

Few farmers know what they really do get, even out of their small garden. A few days ago a city friend surprised me by saying that it took about fifteen hundred dollars for rent and living for her small family. I began to figure, to show her that this amount was not necessary; but when I put down rent, water, wood, milk, butter, eggs, chickens, vegetables and forty and one other things that my farm afforded, and I, like many farmers, made no count of, I saw where I was wrong.

No Need of Drudgery.

The right kind of farming to a large extent eliminates drudgery. It is the long hours and the longer chores that drive many a boy from land forever, and neither are any more necessary to a properly managed farm than to any other business. We are learning to simplify our chores, and to specialize our farming in such a way that reasonable hours and plenty of time to live and enjoy life in are to be found on a well regulated farm as surely as elsewhere. An intelligent, up-to-date farmer will study as hard to get unnecessary drudgery off his farm as he will to get a good crop off of it. When a man's land is paid for and fair buildings up and painted, and he still gets his boys and girls out of bed at four o'clock in the morning to begin doing chores, he ought to be ashamed of it, and not proud of it, as some farmers are. either does not know how to farm properly, or he is inexcusably over-greedy and is liable to commit the unpardonable sin of driving his children from the soil. The time has gone by, if there

He

ever

was such a time, when a boy should be ashamed of coming from the farm, or of being a farmer. Intelligent farming not only turns out good crops, but it turns out good boys and girls, grand men and women, and the most beautiful and independent homes on earth. To me it is a sufficient ambition for the brightest boy to own a good farm and to know how to handle it. Formerly only the dull boys were encouraged to stay on the farm, but today, if I had a dull boy, one who did not seem to be over-bright, I would make a lawyer of him, or something of that kind. The bright boy I would do all in my power to keep on the land.

The great men of history have almost invariably spent much of their early life on land, and the greatest men of our greatest cities never tire of telling how they learned their first lessons in economizing, overcoming and doing things, when they were boys on the farm.

Now, as never before, everything seems to be coming to the man who owns the soil. The centralized school is bringing a sufficient education to his very door, the rural delivery his mail, and the telephone his neighbors. The fast express and freight are putting Main street alongside the road by his farm, and moving the great markets of the east and his once distant acres steadily nearer to each other. The Experiment Stations, Agricultural Schools and such meetings as this are helping him with the very latest and best that is known or can be discovered for his special benefit. Invention, which has taken labor and support from so many, only eliminates drudgery from his business, and is powerless to create substitutes for what he has to sell. He has nothing to fear from higher civilization, increasing population, and keener competition. They only raise the value of his acres and the price of what he produces, at the same time cheapening the cost of his labor and of what he requires from the outside world. The best and worst the world can do seems only to make the up-to-date farm home richer and the most startling inventions and evolutions add only to its desirability and independence. There never was a time in the history of the world when properly conducted farming held out the inducements to young men that it does today.

Mr. Scribner.

The subject of milking to me is a very important feature of the dairy work, and the cry is going out all over the country, Where can I get good milkers? It is a subject that well may be considered, for by the securing of good milkers depends in a large degree the success in the dairy business, or failure to secure such the best of work cannot be accomplished.

Some of the Essentials for a Successful Milker.

I think one of the essentials for a successful milker is a large amount of patience. We must realize that we

are dealing with dumb animals, and an impatient, ill-tempered milker's work soon shows very emphatically on the milk sheet. This, of course, is more perceptible in some cows than others; the highly bred cow, with lots of nerve force and consequently the best milker, is one most easily affected by such disturbances. If the owner milks some of the cows himself, all the better, he has a chance to show by his personal conduct how he regards the work of milking. A good example is worth a whole lot more than preaching, and when they read the milk sheet and notice the better results that you are getting, think that perhaps there is something after all in being kind, careful and patient.

Excitement Should Be Avoided.

Anything unusual at time of milking should be avoided as much as possible, as excitement has not only a tendency to decrease the flow of milk, but when the milk is tested shows a decided decrease in the butter fat.

The Dairy Barn.

I think the work of the milker can be made more interesting by making the stable more attractive, and partly for this reason should be well lighted and ventilated, and made cleanly by dusting and whitewashing, also the use of land plaster and some absorbent in the trenches, like cut or shredded corn fodder, for the purpose of keeping the stable sweet and pure, some pictures hung on the walls of some prominent cows of the breed you are keeping.

A milk sheet should be in every barn, and the cows tested regularly

and the milkers made known of the results. All these things have a tendency towards interesting them in their work and I firmly believe are productive of better results.

Some Things the Cows Should Learn.

Cows should take the same place in the stable each time, and then the milker will know just where to find them, and they do better to be milked by the same one as far as possible in the same order each time.

Some cows that are easy milkers when giving a large flow, we find it

to milk the fore teats together and the back ones together. Some claim that by milking crosswise, one hind teat and one forward one, that it has a tendency to throw the udder out of balance. I never noticed any bad results from so doing, but, as a rule, most cows give the most milk from the rear quarters, and if they are milked crosswise, the work does not come out even and it requires more changing around, but whichever way you start, continue that way, as they get accustomed to it and do much bet

best to milk first, for as soon as they are in the stable they begin to let down the milk and some leaks away, causing a bad odor in the stable and losing some milk besides.

Heifers should be taught to "hoist" the first thing, as it puts the udder in a better position to be handled. Cows that have not been taught this, when they come to develop large udders and are heavy milkers, are quite an annoyance to the milker, especially with cows that do not carry the udder well forward.

How to Milk.

As a rule, we find it most convenient

ter. In case the front quarters are shy milkers, especial pains should be taken to thoroughly empty these quarters, so as to encourage a larger flow and to get and keep a more perfectly balanced udder.

The care of the teats should always be observed by the milker and when they get hard and rough should be anointed with vaseline, as cracked teats are an annoyance to the milker, hurtful to the cow and have a tendency to lessen the flow of the milk. Long finger nails are also a discomfiture to the cow, and the milker should keep them well pared to avoid trouble.