Illinois being so generally level, and much of our black soil resting on
clay, here is to be the favorite field for the ditcher and tile-maker.
Invention has an inviting field, and already foreshadows rich results.
Your association, though a private one, touches the public interest very
broadly. You reveal and make possible new sources of wealth, which
promises to agriculture a new era of development. You may do much to
settle true principles and proper public policy, so that this great
drainage enterprise may move along harmoniously. The law-maker and the
tile-maker are necessary factors in this grand march of improvement.

Other valuable papers were read which we shall take occasion to publish
at some future time.

BETTER MANAGEMENT NEEDED.

A little forethought on a farm is a good thing. It saves time, money,
and much of the vexation that is liable to come without it. Like the
watchman on a ship a good farmer must always be looking ahead. He must
be quick in his judgment of what should be done at the present time, and
he should have a good perception to show him the best thing to do for
the future.

It is a mistaken idea that many possess who think there is no brain work
needed on a farm. Farmers are usually looked upon as an ignorant class
of people, especially by many of the city friends who often do not see
the large, sympathizing feelings that lie hidden beneath the rough
exterior of country people. They are in many cases better educated than
they look to be, and they have a chance to use all the education they
have at their command in the performance of the many and different kinds
of duties that are to be done in the occupation of agriculture. There is
much work to be done and it requires to be done at the right time to
give a profitable return for the labor. To have things done properly a
farm requires a good manager to eke out the labor force in the way it
will do the greatest amount of work. Most farmers are willing to work,
and take pleasure in doing so. All perform the harder parts of farming
with an energy that is surpassed by no other laboring class in the
world. Farmers deserve praise for this, I think, for it requires a great
deal of pluck to work as hard as many of them do.

It is not, however, the actual hard manual labor that pays the best. The
hardest part of the work may be done and there still remain enough to
render the job far from complete. The minute parts of an occupation are