is advice is constantly sought on all such matters.
Instead of investing his money in mining, on which he is a recognized
authority, he has invested it in a farm, about which he knows next to
nothing. He has not even had the advantage of being raised on a farm,
since his father was a railroad man.

A mechanical engineer remarked that if he had $25,000 he would invest
it in a farm. This man is supposed to be an expert in business methods
as applied to manufacturing in general, and he is especially
conversant with the manufacture and trade in automobiles. About all he
has seen of farming he has observed from the window of a Pullman car
or from the steering wheel of an automobile. Instead of investing his
earnings in some manufacturing business, about which he has spent
years of study and in which he has had some training, he would invest
it in farming, of which he has only the most rudimentary knowledge, if
only he had sufficient capital. As a matter of fact, he is more in
need of knowledge than of capital.

Even farmers of experience do not always realize the training required
to succeed in farming. A letter was received by the dean of a certain
agricultural college saying that a graduate of another agricultural
college had taken one of the poorest farms in his neighborhood and was
raising better potatoes than anyone else could raise. The letter asked
that information be sent by return mail as to how this young man could
be beaten in raising potatoes. Of course the answer had to be sent
that while information upon raising potatoes could easily be supplied,
although not in the limits of an ordinary letter, the training in
observation, judgment and reasoning faculties essential to meet the
daily problems as they arise could not be supplied.

There is no objection to men of other vocations adopting farming as an
avocation if they can afford it. It is a rational form of pleasure for
wealthy people, and one in which they can often be of great service.
This cannot be said of all forms of relaxation. Wealthy men have been
of special service to the cause of agriculture by promoting the
breeding of improved live stock. Men in other callings should clearly
understand, however, that if they have a farm merely as a place to
spend a week end, that they may expect to find the financial returns
unsatisfactory.

To no one is there more significance in the old school aphorism
"knowledge is power" than to the young man who is to becom