Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1894-04-05
ADVANCE IN FARMING
THE AVERAGE FARMER THE BAL.
ANCE WHEEL OF SOCIETY.

is Known as the average Farmer
Patriot, the Bone and Sinew of
the Country, Etc.
1t is curious to note the varying esti-
mates that seem to be placed by the
other professions on what is known as
the average farmer" Just prior to
election he is patriot, the bone and
sinew OF the country, the great conserv-
ative force that keeps the government
from going to wreck and ruin. The rest
OF the season he is regarded as growler,
whom nothing seems to suit. The wealth
er is too hot or too cold, the season too
wet or too dry; either the prices are too
low or the crops too small, and SO on un-
til the next campaign opens.
1t is always safe, however, to Judge a
class OF men by the work which it per-
forms, and judged from this standpoint,
the average farmer averages up quite
well. In the last fifty years the average
farmer has transformed an empire Of
waste land into moderately well-tilled
country. lie has made railroads possi-
BILE and done much toward building
them, for which contributions, voluntary
or involuntary, he has never yet received
a cent OF pay or even thanks. He has.
in fact, in many cases been paving divi-
dends on interest on his own benefac-
tions to these public enterprises.
In the last fifty years the average
farmer has furnished more than four
fiiths OF the exports of the United States,
while the manufacturing and mining in
terests combined have furnished less
than one-fifth. The average farmer has
made the great cities of the West pos
sible.. Were it not for him the village
would have no existence, the county
seat would have no excuse for its being,
and the cities would be what they were
before the settlement of the Great West
merely trading posts or government
garrsons. The average farmer has made
his Impression on his flocks and herds
made, in fact, more than an impression
These tiocks and herds are wholly what
he has made them.
They are the measure and expression
OF his actual efforts. They do not by
any means show what the average farmer
can do, but what he has done so far.
Some OF them furnish an admirable les
son OF what he can do when he tries.
The average farmer has taken the aver
age hog, as he existed fifty years ago,
and made him so entirely different from
what he was that he does not even rec
ognize the picture of his ancestor as any
near relation and scarcely recognizes his
species.
What the average farmer has done for
the average hog he can do for all the
other breeds of live stock when he sets
himself to do it, which he will whenever
he sees clearly that it will pay him to do
it. In certain sections of the West the
farmer who is above the average has
taken the average COW and doubled her
dairy capacity, making her for this pur-
pose about three times as good COW as
before. In other sections the farmer
above the average has taken the beef
COW and made such an Improvement that
the two cows are scarcely on visiting
terms in the same pasture.
The average farmer looks on the farm
er above the average awhile and predicts
failure in his breeding operations, then
tries it and fails perhaps, and finally
says to himself: I" | see it now; it is
only by being more than an average
farmer that can grow stock above the
average" When the average farmer
sees this point clearly the average will
advance very rapidly and bring with it
inevitably an advance in the average
COW, horse, pig, sheep, in the average
crops, in the average of home comfort,
society, intelligence and influence at
home and abroad.
The average farmer has done well in
the past. He is the peer of the average
man in any other class. He has it in
him to do far better by advancing the
average standard. What is needed is
not ability, but the stern and resoute
d" will" In point of fact the standard
OF the average farmer is advancing all
the time. There is scarcely farm neigh
borhood in the West in which there is
not very apparent advance in farming
as compared with past years, the result
OF advancing intelligence among farm
ers. The average farmer is reading more
papers and better and doing more ex-
perlmenting in small way himself. He
may be proud.
His judgment on national affairs is
given greater weight than at any time in
the past-is in fact, regarded as more
valuable than the average Judgment OF
any other class of men. The average
farmer is to-day the great conservative
force in society-the balance wheel, so
to speak, OF the social and political sys-
tenn. II all this be true of the average
farmer, what or who can measure the
possibilities of the farm when the aver
age farmer becomes the equal of what is
now regarded as the best class of farm
ers?