New-York tribune., 1901-01-06

M~l might the American farmer with genera
tions of such inheritance become distinguished
as an inventor II was near the middle of the
century that a poet said of the farmer boy that
ne could make anything, from a child's rattle
70 seventy-four.
Make it. said /? Ay. when he undertakes IL
de IL make the thing and the machine that makes It,
OF course he will! He has proved it, A care
Iul writer on improvements in machinery in
le@Z mentions only one invention by an Ameri-
can having bearing on agriculture-the cotton
gln by which one person can do the work of a
thousand And this was less than eighty years
ago. NOW look at the long list of farm machin-
cry! When the pathway open from the
farm TO the market the machinery came; it
would have been useless earlier.
LITTLE CASH IN EARLY DAYS.
OF money the average farmer of the first half
of the century had little. The village store
keeper-when one established himself within
reach-took his surplus butter, cheese and eggs
and gave him credit on which he drew for house
hold supplies. Once a year the drover passed
with his ever increasing herd of bullocks, bought
the farmers surplus stock and went his way
toward the distant market. Payment was made
in hard cash-the only dollar of daddies''
that many of the daddies of the olden time used
to see The hired man question had not arisen
Until the century was past its youth. Young
men in families having more than were needed
on the home farms went TO help their less fortu-
nate neighbors. They received wages, but the
thought of inequality was never entertained. 1t
was the same when there was surplus of girls.
They were treated as sons and daughters in the
homes where they worked. Many outfit for
Western emigration was procured in this man.
ner. Later when factories established,
some Of these boys and girls went TO work in
the mill' and brought back money which seemed
wealth TO their parents. The population of the
factory town was then as pure and simple as
the farming communities from which it had been
recruited.
Wherever the early settler pushed his way
INTO the wilderness the public school was soon
established. Its influence in moulding the public
character has been endlessly discussed. But
one feature has been passed over too lightly or
has been unnoticed The academies and colleges
gave their long vacations in the winter, in order
that the students might teach in district
schools To save all the school fund and thus
extend the term, the teacher boarded round, and
curing the long winter was an honored guest
in every home from which his pupils came His
educational influence over parents and children
was often more valuable in the home life than
in the schoolroom
Thus the conditions which in great degree
formed the American farmer-from whom were
derived all classes of the nl.Tican people-ex-
tended through the eighteenth and we'll into the
nineteenth century.
CHANGES FOLLOWED RAPIDLY.
Then changes came with startling rapidity.
The theories Of few generations ago became
accomplished facts. and the farmer in all parts
of our extending country found himself in direct
and rapid communication with the great COM
mercial centres. He became producer for the
world, from all parts Of which he could in
turn draw those things which he could not prof
itably raise With altered conditions has come
a special situation. Agricultural schools, col
leges and experiment stations have been estab-
lished in the several States and the National
Government contributes literally TO the diffusion
Of accurate information on all agricultural sub
jects The world has been ransacked for the
most valuable fruits and grains. and the best
live stock OF all sorts has been introduced; so
that to-day the American farmer, from the At
lantic TO the Pacific. can compete successfully,
not merely with any country but with all coun-
tries in the temperate zone
He is a student. an experimenter and a mer-
chant. Machinery has relieved him from severe
muscular labor and cooperation from much
drudgery. He succeeds by the exercise of his
mental faculties The hard school OF his fathers
has given him a splendid inheritance but he
must avail of the changed conditions dill
gently and as faithfully they did of their
conditions. Old methods obsolete the
hill roads Of the past.
S. CUSHMAN CALDWELL.