Red River prospector. (Red River, Taos County, N.M.) 1900-190?, 1906-07-26

IN the WOTluS dictionary Lne FARMER
is defined as a plain tiller of soil, and
the agriculturist or planter as n who
has lifted the farm on to the plane of
business. The term farmer, however,
covers that bast company Of workers
who, by the planting of the seed, raise
any kind of a harvest, or who breed
and raise cattle and other stock.
The railroad may cease runn1ne, and
things will continue to live. The stock
board may board up its doors, and the
world will continue to move as it has
been moving for centuries, subject
only to transient financial c%loudiness.
Most businesses may go out OF bust
ness, and the professional may no long
er continue to practice, yet people Will
continue to live and to propagate. But
when there is no longer any farmer
there will be no longer any people, for
the world will have starved to death.
Farming is u greatest industry, the
industry preservative of all industries.
Notwithstanding the existence of hun
creds of abandoned farms, and the
constant exodus from the farm to the
city, the farm in its numerical and
financial strength is to-day the greatest
power in the whole civilized world.
The farmer is not recognized as he
should be, because he seeks neither
notoriety nor prominence, but quietly
does his work, allowing others to play
at society and to receive its shallow
reward. Here, however, has been mad
a grievous mistake. The farmer, like
4Ir D., u,ko- ~H,,,1d no DrD,ra nF hsc mn
f~esslon, sufficiently appreciative of it
to contribute to it. the full measure Of
his self-respect. Because he does not
do so, he has lost both the social and
business prominence which really be-
loagn to his calling.
Why Farms Do Net Pay.
Bome farms do not pay, partly be-
cause some farms cannot be made to
ray. Probably not more than one-half
of our fertile farms pay as we'll as they
would pay if the right effort was made
to make them pay. 1t is but a common
remark that a great majority of farms
are improbable because of the indif-
ference and lack of cultivation on the
Part of the owners. Altogether too
many farmers, instead OF working
their farms, allow their farms to work
them.
The tendency to-day is Enthusiastically
away from the farm. The farmers
bow. partly because he wants a change,
but largely because the great un-
known shines with a light apparently
brighter than all the lights he has ever
seen, desires to leave the farm and to
carr his living under entirely different
conditions, away from nature as he has
experienced it, where he may lead a
life Numerically different from that OF
his childhood. The fault, in more than
half the cases, is due to the farmer
himself and to the way the farm is
conducted. The boy, brought up upon
the farm which is not property Guilt
waited, and where most of the work is
drudgery. or is made to be drudgery
where intellectual growth is stunted
naturally, in the ignorance of his
youth, assumes that all farms are like
the farm of his childhood, and that the
opportunities of life must be else
where. Therefore he gravltates to the
city. not so much because he loves the
city, but because he feels that tina
which he knows nothing about, al
though he may think he does, is better
than that which he does known abou
from actual boyhood experience.
Ii the average farmer works harder
than does the business man, 1t is no
always because he has to, but general
ly because he thinks he must. l do no
d. deny that there is much of drudgery il
farm labor-there is. So is there in al
cost any other calling or work. Blu
The excess Of drudgery is usually tn
fault Of the drudge, not of the worl
itself. So far as the long farm hour
are concerned, they are no longer thai
those required of the majority Of me
in business for themselves and o
members of all professions.
Brains Needed on Farm.
Although the average city bushes
man may accumulate more money thal
the farmer can possibly gain under tn
most favorable circumstances, he pay
a greater price for what he obtains
ana In the majority of cases is wors
on than is the farmer If the farme
treated MS WOih as nc buuilu, an
applied to II the intelligence that !
given to other trades, he would reduc
tho drudgery to a minimum, and read
money would not be a stranger t
him.
Nearly all farmers make a living
Comparatively few grow rich from tn
proceeds Of the farm; but more tina
half of the farmers, whether locate
on the rocky hills OF Maine or on tn
rapidly producing western soil, nc
only make expenses. but are able I
save something every year.
The city clerk OF city business mar
working in a block and housed in
fiat, does not have one-half as niue
opportunity to progress, in the trues
sense of the word, as does the farme
on a fairly fertile farm, working as hi
own master on his property.
Better on Than City Man.