The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1906-11-23
The Rising Status Of the Farmer.

A4oX0AN. " &Fs %F4sT%
The Rising Statu. Of the Farmer.
People who have been accustom-
ed to look upon professional or
mercantile callings as affording the
best development Of the faculties
which beget social and other leader
ship-and who therefore press their
sons into those callinxs would do
we'll to keep an eye on the Ameri-
can farmer. For. if all signs fail
not, it is he who will shortly domi-
nate the society, politics an eco
nomic advance Of our great repub-
lie. The stone which American
society has rejected, during the
temporary ascendancy Of other call
ings, is fast rising to become 1.-The
head Of the corner. "
For the farmer has entered into
an alliance with Science, whose ad-
vances he once repelled. Brain
power rather than muscle is now
his chief reliance in misconduct Of
his business dealings with Mother
Earth. he studies not only thu
scientific aspects Of bis enterprises,
but their business problems too;
keeps book accounts with his fields,
and is learning to expect definite re-
turns from specific investments with
the same certainty as the mer-
chant or manufacturer. He finds
scope in his calling for . mental
development of better quality, and
good deal broader. than is afford
ed by law or medicine or commerce.
And that development is not at
tanned, az with other callings, at
the sacrifice of physical process.
'Book farming'--now translated
into brain tarming-and outdoor
life, combine to make the farmer
the perfect man. The culture he
now attains, and the society to
which an entree has been given him
by modern facilities for intercourse,
make him ''gentleman" as we'll.
But, more than all, in the, money
perverted eye of the average
American, the farmer is getting
rich. He today controls more
than all the banks or all
the railroad corportions in Amerl7
ca. His per capita Of wealth is
greater than that of the men in
any other Largely followed calling.
His annual income is likewise
large. And his attainments in
agricultural science increase, and
he applies more and more to inten
sive cultivation the effort once ex-
pended on half cultivation, his
average income is certain to amount
higher and higher. Farmers with
incomes Of from 5000 to .S2t, 900
3 year will soon be more numerous
than professional or business men of
like incomes. And the farmer with
from 81 900 to "a, 900 a year gets a
deal more out of life than does his
fellow in other callings. -
The farm home il already ber
ginning to eclipse the city home,
not only in the attractiveness Of it's
surroundings but in it's furnishing,
it's ministries to the refinements Of
existence and, above. all, in the
stimulus it affords to high thinking
and high living and in its attrao-
tiveness as q social center. It will
not be long before the only city man
whose home attracts al does the
home of the farmer, by it comforts
and elegancies. will be the city
man who lives on a country
place." Nor is the possession of
hundreds of. broad acres longer
necessary to such advancement.
The man who farms with brains
now get more out of ten or fifteen
acres than his grandfather could
yet out of 16Q,-Pioneer Press.