The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-04-19
BY NATHAN C. FOWLER JR.
Author of "The Boy-How to Help Him
Succeed" and Other Books.
ARTICLE NO. II.

In the worlds dictionary the farmer
| is defined as a plain tiller of the soil,
| and the agriculturlst or planter is one
| who has lifted the farm to a plane of
| business.
The first man was a farmer
The railroad may cease running, and
! folks will live. The stock board may
| board up its doors, and the world will
| go on. Most all of business may go out
| OF business and profession no longer
practice, and folks will continue to be
born and to propa gate. But when there
| is no longer any farming, there will no
| longer be people, for the world will
| have starved to death.
The farm is the essential factor of
| human maintenance. The farm is an
| indispensable necessity.
The barren farm does not pay and it
| cannot be made to pay. The fertile
| farm frequently does not pay because
| 1t Is not made to pay. The reason for
| SO per cent of the improbable farms
| IS due to Indifference and to lack of
| cultivation. Altogether too many farm
! ers, instead of working their farms, al
! low their farms to work them. The sit
| uation is their master. instead of their
! being the master of the situation.
| Farm work is hard. The farmer, as
| much as any other man, earns his own
| living Farmers, as a rule, are the hard
| their labors, and many of them bend
| too much for the success of the farmer
is not dependent upon overWork. 1t is
4 true that the successful farmer cannot
| be loafer 1t is also true that loafing
| is fatal to any kind of success. The
| farmer necessarily must labor longer
! than do some other workers. His hours
| are generally from sunrise to sunset,
| but for all that, he does not work any
| harder, or rather, he does not need to
| work any harder. than does the average
| business man or member of a profess
sion. 1t the farmer works harder, it is
| not because he has to, it is because he
| thinks he has to.
L do not deny that there Is a certain
! amount of drudgery to farm labor but
It's excess is generally the fault of the
| drudge.
Lack Of success in farming, unless
| the farm be Enthusiastically barren is al
most always caused from lack of in
teliigent application. Altogether too
many farmers imagine that success is
| wholly due to hard and laborious labor
| Work and labor are necessary to any
Intelligent result, but the labor in
| which the mind plays an important
| part is the kind of labor which pays
and which does not wear men out.
I Hard as farming is, and small as is
/ the compensation it usually brings, it
| gives. to the farmer more than is usu-
! ally received by the city dWeller. The
| average clerk at the end of yer has
/ less money than has the farmer, and
| has worked harder to get it. The ay-
| erage business man, although he may
accumuIate more money than the
farmer can possibly receive, pays a
| greater penalty for what he obtains.
| and In the majority of cases is worse
/ Off than Is the farmer. If the farmer
respected his calling as he should, and
/ applied to 1t the intelligence that is
/ given to the other trades and profess
slons. he would reduce his drudgery to
the minimum, and ready money would
| not be so great a stranger to him.
Nearly all farmers make a living, al
though comparatively few farmers
| make more than living. but success
| full farmers almost always attain a
4 competency of reasonable size.
The successful farmer is a man of
] education, although he may not be
book-taught, and he is as well equip
4 ped, so far as general knowledge is
| concerned, as is the man of business.
with the modern periodical and the
I distribution of every class of matter.
| the FARMER has as good an opportunity
| as has the city man for mental de-
Veiopment, and many a successful
! farmer is educationally superior to
| the rank and file of metropolitan men
4 of wealth.
| There always will be poor, half
| starved men among the farmers. but
| this class is no more prominent upon
| the farm than in the marts of business,
| and there are many less farmers in
actual want than there are city work.
| ers. Even the poorest farmers are bet
| ter Off than are the poverty stricken
| people of the great city.
| The farmer. if he has a fairly pro-
| ductYe farm, may stand a much bet
ter chance for real development than
i<,aifr 6 III
I farmer, certainly more than the city
| man, has opportunity for a natural and
| profitable growth
| The farm should be dignified. The
/ truth should be told about it. The
| profession or business of farming
| should receive the recognition it de-
! serves The farm offers much more
| than it Is supposed to possess.
Snail the boy remain on the farm?
| To large extent, that is the bows
| business, and sensible men say mo" if
| the boy reasonably, sensibly and thor
| oughly d1siikes it; but the boy who is
! MT to leave the farm, who has sufficient
| mind Of his own to know what is best
for him, will never yacate the farm for
| any other place or calling until he has
| 1ntelligentiy, faithfully and honestly
! considered and weighed the ADVANTAGES
and disadvantages of farm life.
The boy who has no reason for his
| whether he stays on the farm or he
! leaves 1t.
| The boy who dislikes the farm be-
! cause he does not like work Will never
| be success anywhere.
| The boy who does not like farming.
| who has absolutely no love for planting
/ or harvesting, is not likely to be good
| farmer, and forcing him to remain
| there indefinitely is bad judgment,
1 cruel and improbable.
The boy has just as much right not
| to like the farm as he has to have no
| love or desire for any other specific
1 calling
Many boys who leave the farm do so
| because they look upon farming as in
! ferior labor, and the farmer himself is
to blame for it. If the farmer himself
| respected farming as he should, and
the community gave it it's deserts,
many boy, today a failure in a great
| city, would have been a successful citi-
/ zen upon a farm.
The drudging farmer, the ne'er-do-
| Well digger of the soil, with weedy
4 garden and shabby house, cannot ex-
pect his boy will respect the farm or
/ love farming.
/ Should the city boy leave the city to
become farmer? Yes, if he wants to.
/ The chances are that if he does. he will
4 be a happier man, a healthier man and
| a better citizen. But if he doesn't want
to go, don't force him to go. The boy.
fF1,. Iaeatf fInvn