The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-12-10
STICK TO THE FARM

The production of wheat in tho
United States gained, between 1870
and 1880, 20 per cent, its production
OF corn $50 per cent, it's production
of cotton SO per cent, and its prodnc,
ton of hay q per cent, and vet tho
proportion of persons occupied in ar
r%iculture, to the entire population, feII
from ~ per cent. in 1870 10 ~ nor
cent. in 1880.
Why should this relative decrease
in the farming population have taken
place? When agriculture itself ad.
vances, and many thousands of new
farms r opened, why should not the
relative proportion of farmers and
farm-workers increase?
There is a variety of reasons. The
use of agricultural machinery, and the
introduction of cooperative dairyinp,
have made possible a larger amount
of production with the same amount
of labor. At the sametime the growth
of manufactures and trade has drawn
from the agricultural class a steadily
increasing number of operatives.
But while it is true that these two
causes have had a marked effect in re.
ducing the relative number of farm
ers, there is no reason to suppose that
other causes not so distinctly economic
have not been at work to increase the
proportion of what has been called the
"non producing class" and which is
so called because, though it nay per-
form a useful service to the real pro-
ducers of food products or of needed
manufactured articles, it merely
handles what is produced, performs a
professional service, and is really,
meantime, consuming the productions
of others.
Thoughtful representatives of the
producing class proper-the artisans
and the farmers-have many times
publicly deplored the pressure on the
part of the children of manual workers
to get out of the producing class, and
enter the commercial or professional
classes.
eff they can get where they can
wear a black coat all day." says one
artisan, "and keep their hands clean,
so that on the street they may be
taken for gentlemen and not for
working people, they think they are
a great deal better off, even though
they do not earn half as much money
as they might at a good trade"
No doubt the aspiration to "get up
in the world" socially is a natural
one, but it is by no means to be en-
couraged under all circumstances.
There is no country in the world
where manual labor is either more
profitable or more respected than it is
in the United States. There is no
real advancement to be obtained by
forsaking the ranks of the producers
for reasons of appearance.
On the other hand there is often a
distinct sacrifice Of personal advantage
in such a step. The commercial
classes are now so overcrowded that
chances of ucces in them have be-
come quite precarious.
The legal profession is a good in
stance of o~vercrowding. In a recent
address before the American Bar AS
ISOLATION, Mr.. David Dudley Field
showed that the United States has
nearly 10000 lawyers, eight times as
many as France has with 40, 0 600,
and ten times as many as Germany
with a population Of As, 900, 900.
In other occupations, such as clerk
ships and the like, men and women
often struggle on for years, on a
meagre salary in situations which have
become burdensome to them because
they are unable to find others.
The farmer or mechanic, on the
other hand, is measurably indepen-
dent, and may, with activity and dill
gence, find the conditions which best
suit his character and capacity. The
producing occupations are seldom
overcrowded; there are opportunities
for winning a competence in them no
less than in commerce or the profes-
sions, and with the. falling off in the
supply of unoccupied farming lands IN
the West, the value both Of farms
and of farming products is reasonably
sure to offer the agriculturist an in
creasing reward.
More than this, the inducement to
young men born on the farm to con-
tinue in agricultural pursuits becomes
greater and greater with the improve
ments in farming methods. The
farmer now does not need to work so
hard as his father did.
With labor saving machinery, ana
cooperation in certain branches OF the
farm work, agriculture has become a.
the same time a more agreeable ana a
more r~emunerative occupation. III
deed, agriculture/ha has never offered a
better life than it now offers to the
young man who entertains a praise
worthy purpose to adopt it as a pur'