The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1888-06-26
THE WORLD OWES TO
AGRICULTURE.

Disseminated and thriftless farmers
will decry their business without a
thought on the magnitude of the In
terests involved in agriculture. They
fail to see hat it underlies all other
pursuits of men, and that no other &C.
cupation can be conducted except by
means of the food and other materials
it furnishes. It is the Creators first
ordained work for man, and thus has,
and will ever have, the sanction and
blessing of a Divine Providence. 1t
about equally divides the population
of the earth, and no shifting of NAL
contents can destroy this providential
division of labor. Husbandry thus
being the foundation, all other occupa-
tons must draw their supplies from it.
Obliterate it, and mankind will perish
or relapse into barbarism. Being the
first, it is the noblest of all pursuits;
but it must 90 hand in hand with
trade, commerce, manufactures, min
ing and other callings into which COM
munities are divided, SO that all shall
be mutually supporting. Nor is this
all. 1t must not only produce food
and the raw material for the raiment
for mankind, but it must subsist all
domestic and nearly all predatory ami
mails; also the insects, visible and in
visible, which prey upon it's field and
garden crops and fruits. 1t is thus
heavily taxed, but can bear burdens
as no other occupation can do. Those
who permit the thought to take root
in their minds that it is a dull and
plodding business, without adequate
returns, are encouraging a spirit of
discomfort which is directly damaging
to themselves and pernicious in its in
fuence on others. Better bear and
strive to remove the ills supposed to
exist than to fly to others unknown.
These thoughts are often suggested
by the acts of farmers who own or
occupy farms, and, without due refec-
ton, sell or abandon them, and come
to cities and towns where, as they sup
pose, their labors and talents will be
better rewarded. In most cases these
are grave mistakes. Men who have
been born and reared on farms should
hesitate long before they leave them.
The majority who do not so hesitate
generally fail to better their condition,
and some subject themselves and fami-
lies to want and p%rivation. These
malcontents may be variously CLASH
fed: First, the mar who owns a val
liable farm of which he gets tired, and
finds he a sell it for a large price,
say 81 $1,000, and with this sum imag-
ines he can live comfortably, or even
sumptuously, in. city; but after the
sale he finds also that if his capital is
invested in the surest interest-paying
stocks the gross annual income will
not exceed $1,000, which is not sufi-
Gent to pay rent, taxes, and family
expenses, and supply the same COM
forts and social position which his
abandoned farm, with fair manage
ment, would secure him. He then
decides to venture a portion of his
capital in speculation, and the chances
are more than even that it will be
greatly impaired, if not wholly lost; or
he may decide to go into business, and
with his inexperience he incurs the
risk of the loss of his capital. The
price of his farm is thus fast dwind-
ling away, and he will be left a poorer,
If not a wiser man He will by this
time find out that there is a mental
strain, affecting health and personal
comfort, greater than that attending
a quiet abode in the country, where he
is relieved from the numerous cash de-
mands which present themselves daily
in a city, in one or another shape, as
rent, taxes, gas, water, fuel, market
ing, groceries, and bills of other kinds.
Such a man will, in tie end see that
agriculture has it's highest claims on
the labor and minds of those who by
birth and inheritance are the natural
possessors of the lands worked by
their fathers, and that their chief aim
should be to retain their heritage and
elevate their occupation and make it
the peer of any other. The next class
are they who have smaller possessions
than the first, and if they abandon
their farms and seek homes in a city
the most precarious condition of appli-
cants for employment is thrust upon
them, and if fortunate enough to find
employment the wages will be small
and the labor more exacting and con-
slant than that of the farm. Their
earnings will in most cases fall short
of their absolute needs, and their
wives and daughters will also have to