The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-02-18
Copyright. 1905. BY Natha Q, Fowler, II.

|
rv> HE term farmer covers that vast
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
planter Of the south and the agricul-
turist Of the west are both farmers,
but by courtesy are described by other
titles, because they carry farming into
business, or rather apply the methods
of business to planting and harvesting.
The farm with what the farm stands
for, is the essential factor Of human
maintenance. The. farm, then, is indis-
pensable.
Farming is our greatest industry, the
industry preservative Of all industries.
Notwithstanding the existence Of hun
.dreds of abandoned farms, and the
constant exodus from the farm to the
city, the farm in its numerical and |
financial strength is today 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 made
grievous mistake. The farmer, like
the lawyer, should be proud Of his pros
fession, sufficiently appreciative Of it
to contribute toaits the. full measure Of
his self4respect. To- be in love with
one Is work does not fully suffice. It is
necessary to have the love for the work
so appear before men that they may
honor us, and by respecting us Be more
willing to become@of or to help U.S..
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There are too many classes Of farms
to allow Of complete enumeration. They
| range from the rocky eastern farm to
| that Of the fertile western prairies:
| Some farms do not pay, partly be-.
cause some farms cannot be made to
pay. The totally barren farm is a
worthless piece Of property. The soon
er it is abandoned, the better: Proba-
IDLY not more than one-half of our fer
tile farms pay as well as they would
pay if the right effort was made to
4 make them pay. It is but "a common
remark that 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
q their farms, allow their farms to work
them. The principles of business, the
i laws of progressive economoy, are not
q applied to the farm sas they are to
4 other trades or businesses; consequent
ly, the farmer is not always financially
well-to-do; and usually, thru no fault
Of the farm, but because he does not
:. exact what he should from it. az.s4S
; ,gref2 4. * 'Fs&jg !. ssoc ;
The tendency today is unmistakably
away from the. farm nnu. The farmer {
boy, partly because heswants change
butt largely because the great un
: known shines Wit With FaaA' light apparently
j. brighter than all the lights he has eve.
= seen, desires to leave the farm -l and {,
earn his living under entirely differen
1 conditions, away from nature as he ha
d experienced it, where he may lead I
d life Numerically different from tina
t of his childhood.
: But the farmers boy is not alto
+ gether to blame for leaving the farm
d The fault, in more than half the cases
d is due, to the farmer himself and t
e the way the farm is conducted. Th
y boy, brought up upon the farm whic
/ is not properly cultivated, and wher
d most of the work is drudgery, or
r made to be drudgery, where intellectus
It growth is stunted, naturally, in til
y ignorance Of his youth, assumes tina
le all farms are like the farm of his chile
10 hood, and that the opportunities G
s. life must be elsewhere. Therefore b
n gravitates to the city, not so much b.
3 cause he loves the city, but because b
y feels that that which he knows notl
4 Z. ing about, altho he may think he doe
Is is better. than that ] which he do
= know about from actual boyhood e:
"a perience.
20 The farmer, rather than the farm,
u driving the boy to the city, and t.
:, q boy is going to the city simply becau
y - in a negative way he has been f for
y, ~ cityward.
he Farm work Is hard. There is
n denying it. The farmer, as much as a.
,lf other man, earns his. Lying by t
nd work of his hand and the sweat Of
til brow. Farmers, as a rule, are the hal
,lv est Of our workers except the mine
no They literally bend to their labors, a
M: many of them bend altogether t
oh much in their assumption that the s,
in cess Of the farm is dependent upon t
er. quantity rather than upon the quail
In Of their work.
ca, If the average farmer works hare
w. than does the business, man, it is
we always because he has to, but gen
ily ally because he thinks he, must.
not deny that there, is much of dru'
ht- cry in farm labor-there is. So is tn
,he in almost any other calling or wo
re- But the excess Of drudgery is usua
,al- the fault of the drudge, not of the WI
I itself. So far as the long farm ho
T are concerned, they are no longer tt
ief those required Of the majority Of y
ew in business for themselves and Of me-
all bers Of all professions. The farmer
in as much time on his hands, and g
the orally more, than does the city busin
vas man or. professional man. It may Sc
led to him that he works longer, but
# does not. AS a matter Of fact,
INST chances are that he works fewer no
old- than does his city neighbor.
last !. :. ),
and
, q Nearly all. farmers make livi
The Comparatively few grow rich from
in proceeds Of the farm; but more T
not half Of the farmers, whether located
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