Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1899-02-03
The Moral Influences of the
Farm.
BY j. W. BoPP.

BY j. W. BoPP.
Paper read before the Howard county farmers
institute at its recent meeting in Cresco.l
The environment of the mans home,
like his cradle, has much to do with his
destiny. 1t was a wholesome breath of
the Almighty that gave birth to the land
of this m%agnanimous west, aud a fortu-
nate lot that awaited its people. Fortu-
nate not in the sense that nature had al
ready stored the honey of the rock and
the finest of the wheat with little effort
to man, but in the sense of environment
that draws to the completest strength
what is good and true in a sturdy life.
This vast west, purified by many winters,
ennobled by Its oceanic p%rairies and en-
riched by its fertile highlands and low
lands. beautlied by its streams and land
scapes, brooded over by a nerveful air
and a deep horizoned sky combines in.
1uences for a self made and independent
people. In the past nations have grown
in proportion to the degree with which
they have fostered agriculture. In the
tune of Joseph in Egypt, history tells US
that that nation was one of the greatest
in the land known world, and sent its
stores to the farthest limits of commerce.
Later, when the nation became rich in
its cities, and profligate in ITS habits, ag-
riculture was greatly oppressed and neg
lected until it's farmers who had once
been the bone and sinew of the nation,
became in a very large degree a patton
of service. The Fellah was crushed
down by the oppressive laws ard excess
sive taxation until he had lost his ambl-
ton and his hope and became a %fatalist.
expecting whatever might come without
any show of spirited resistance. With
this downfall of agriculture in Egypt
went the pride and the glory and the
standing of the nation from among the
peoples of the earth.
The next great nation to gain large
material wealth and large to
support IFS arms and establish itself
among the people of the earth, was that
of Rome. This likewise was developed
by a sturdy race who made the original
Roman empire blossom like Il garden
and made it a nation rich in the re.
sources which gave it strength when it
went to war with neighboring states and
gave its soldiers that courage and that
love of country rooted in the homes scat.
tered all over its beautiful peninsula.
which made it the terror and the con.
queror of all the nations with which it
came in conflict. Then history tells us
that when the nation had reached its
zenith and stood as the proud mistress
of the then proud world, wealth and lux
ury in the cities began to Cypress and
neglect its farmer citizens. This was
continued from time to time, until from
a nation of tillers of the soil who took
pride in their homes and IN their ceun-
try, it was changed to a nation of slaves
and helpless servitude. The Roman EN-.
plre was SO great and SO firmly establish
ed and its resources were SO vast that 1t
took many generations before the pro-
higacy OF the cities and the oppression
OF its ruling classes had prepared it for
it's downfall: and when its downfall came
it was accomplished by a race that was
composed largely of free men and those
who were fighting for their homes and
their country.
Later still we see the same conditions
and the same course of events in another
nation nearer our own times. Three or
four hundred years ago, Spain was one
OF the proudest nations tn the world.
Her navy and ships were mistress of all
the seas known to commerce; but she too
like Egypt and Rome began to neglect
its agricultural citizens, and she too from
that time began to decline and today we
see the end of her once proud position
among the nations of the earth.
In our W time much has been done
and is being done for the protection and
advancement and the firm establishment
of its agricultural population. We have
agricultural departments in our state
universities, and experiment stations,
and farmers institutes have been organ
lied all e the land. But there is yet
no general recognition of the fact that
another great road to culture lies
directly across the farms. Not that this
road to culture would Lead to nothing
that does have a direct bearing on the
feeding of Poland Chinas and the breed
ing or Shorthorns and the filling of the
soil, but it should have an agricultural
and horticultural trend, leading the com.
ing generations to a desire to become
good and intelligent farm citizens.
Fifty years ago the educators declared
there was but one road to culture-tbat
which led through the Latin and Greek
classics. Later there came forward a
class of educated people who claimed
that culture might be obtained through
the study of science. For a long time
the classical scholars fought against Civ
ing science the honored place which it
now holds in our agricultural colleges
and university courses. The science
c %entrenched behind the college ram.
parts joined forces with the classical
scholars and declared there were only
two roads to culture.
Inventions also have been and are