The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1903-04-16
Papry Read Before the .Chaata,tQua Circle.

E'apw Read Before the .ChaattauQaa Circle.
1T AFFORDS me pleasure to express
few scattered ideas on the sub
ieet of farming, for in SO doing |
touch theme very near to my
own heart. 1t is with pride that
L recall the fact that my ancestors,
as far back as 1 have any knowledge,
were all farmers. There may be
something hereditary in our likes and
dislikes, yet be that as it may, my love
for the farm is unbounded, and in
connection with some less honorable
syocations, / myself am a farmer.
I recall my happiest days as having
been spent away from the surging
crowd, away from the mad strife for
recognition and supremacy, away from
the uncharitable rush after the al
mighty dollar, Sin sylvan vale, near
to natures heart" look upon the
American farmers as the kings of the
earth.
The evils of the over-crowding of the
professions have been met with the
suggestion to raise the standard OF
scholarship and make the requirements
of admittance thereto more rigid. The
same suggestion can be we'll applied to
farming. IF there is a demand for
more proficiency in the professions, the
same demand exist in no less a degree
in farming. In our own state there is
a demand for more farmers, even those
who have no better qualifications than
sufficient physical strength to hold a
pIow, and there is much greater de-
mand for expert agriculturalists and
horticulturalists. There are far too
many men begging for dollar day po-
sitions in our cities, where their families
must OF necessity exist amid unsani.
tary and immoral conditions, who
should be independent producers, oe'
cupying and owning some of the great
area of unoccupied land in our state
thereby not only bettering their own
condition, but also the condition OF
those who remain in the city. 1t is not
strikes that make better wages and
conditions, so much as would scarcity
Of laboring men in the cities. So long
as there are two men for every goOC
position, the laboring man is not in thu
proper position to dictate terms to hi
employer.
Questions of grave Importance con
front our Minnesota farmer, which
questions must of necessity grow loud
ee each succeeding year. Many of then
are embodied in the one: Are no
the farming conditions of Minnesot
fast merging into what has so long bee1
an established fact in England
nobility land ownership and serfdom
Such q condition if properly met ma
be good one; but when the plan b.
natural evolution of things is consum
mated, let the present farmer be tn
nobility landowner and those who ar
content to never own anything be tn
serfs.
Yet we have every reason to believ
that such will not be the satisfactOr
solution of this problem, but that th
city capitalist will own the farms an
the present farmer, or his heirs, a
farmers, will become extinct. Ibeliev
that in many Of the counties of ou
state the plan of grain or stock fsrmin
for profit will practically die with th
present generation. The present SYM
toms are these: The young men an
women on the farm today are dissati
fed with farm life. The young ma
tries to fit himself for some city pos
ton, not caring much what it is, whi
the farm girl would far rather marry
clerk or barber Of the village than h'
neighbor's son on the farm. And, as
often the case, there is no one left b.
hind to run the old farm, and it pass,
into the hands of strangers, which
many cases means that it goes to Il
mortgage. In some cases the your
man stays on the farm until he b
comes its owner, and then too readi
trades it for city property.
Yet many such steps are take