I must in large measure sacrifice about ten years of valuable
experience in practical agriculture. I have learned enough about
farming so that I can manage almost as well as the neighbors; and
without this knowledge, gathered, as you say, in the school of
experience, I can see that serious mistakes would often be made.

"You know that Doctor Miller bought the Bronson farm two years ago.
Well, he has been giving some directions himself concerning its
management. He has had no experience in farming, and last year,
after he had the new barn built, he directed his men to put the
sheaf oats in the barn so they would be safe from the weather. He
did not understand that oats must stand in the shock for two or
three weeks to become thoroughly "cured" before they can safely be
even stacked out of doors; and the result was that his entire oat
crop rotted in the barn.

"People who have lived always in the city sometimes express the most
amusing opinions of farm conditions so well understood even by a
ten-year-old country boy. I recently overheard two traveling men
remarking about the differences which they could plainly observe
between the corn crops in different fields as they rode past in the
train.

"'Some fields have twice as good corn as other adjoining fields,'
one remarked. 'How do you account for the difference,' asked the
other. 'oh, I suppose the one farmer was too stingy of his seed,'
was the reply.

"I am convinced that there are hundreds or perhaps thousands of
valuable facts that have been acquired through experience and