The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1906-08-11

Is defined as PLAIN tlller OF soil, and
the agriculturist or planter as one 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 harvest, or who breed
and raise cattle and other stock.
I he railroad may cease running, and
things will continue to live. The stock
heard may board up it's doors, and the
world will continue to move as it has
been moving for centuries, subject
only to transient financial cloudiness.
Most businesses may go out of busi-
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
tho world will have starved to death.
Farming is our greatest industry, the
industry preservative of all industries
Notwithstanding the existence Of hum
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.
l ne farmer is not recognized as he
should be, because he seeks neither
rotoriety nor prominence, but quietly
ices his work, allowing others to play
az society and to receive it's shallow
reward. Here, however. has been made
grievOus mistake. The farmer, like
The lawyer, should be proud OF his pro-
teSslon, sufficiently appreciative OF it
~ 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-
longs to his calling
Why Farms Do Net Pay.
Some farms do not pay, partly be-
cause some farms cannot be made to
ray. Probably not more than one-half
ri our fertile farms pay as we'll as they
would pay if the right effort was made
70 make them pay. 1t is but common
reIuark that great majority Of farms
are Improbable because OF the indif-
ference and lack of cultivation on the
t''Ae VI VIC "" A01 IAltOSct1lcl lOO
n'ny farmers, instead of working
their farms, allow their farms to work
them.
The tendency to-day is Enthusiastically
eway from the farm The farmers
boy, partly because he wants q change,
but largely because the great un-
known shines with light apparently
brighter than all the lights he has ever
seen, desires to leave the farm and to
earn his living under entirely different
conditions, away from nature as he has
experienced it, where he may lead
life dramatically different from that of
his childhood. The fault, in more than
half the cases, is due to the farmer
F;'nself and to the way the farm is
conducted. The boy, brought up upon
The farm which is not properly Guilt
vailed, and where most of the work is
drudgery, or is made to be drudgery,
where intellectual growth is sUunted,
NJ lurally, in the ignorance OF his
youth, assumes that all farms ore like
the farm of his childhood, and that the
opportunities Of life must be else
Where. Therefore he gravitates to the
city. not so much because he loves the
city, but because he feels that that
which he knows nothing about, al
though he may think he does, is better
than that which he does known about
from actual boyhood experience
II the average farmer works harder
than does the business man, it is not
always because he has to, but general
ly because he thinks he must I do not
deny that there is much OF drudgery in
faI>i. labor-there is. So is there in al
cost any other calling or work. : But
fault of the drudge, not of the work
1tself. So far as the long farm hours
are concerned, they are no longer than
those required of the majority OF men
in business for themselves and OF
members of all professions.
Brains Needed on Farm.
Although the average city business
man may accumulate more money than
Tie farmer can possibly gain under the
most favorable circumstances, he pays
greater pIlCc IOI Hudl lie OBTAINS,
ana in the majority OF cases IS worse
off than is the farmer. IT the farmer
treated his work as he should, and
applied to it the intelligence that is
given to other trades, he would reduce
the drudgery to minimum, and ready
money would not be a stranger to
him.
Nearly all farmers make a living,
Comparatively few grow rich from the
proceeds of the farm; but more than
half of the farmers, whether located
on the rocky hills of Maine or on the
rapidly producing western soil, not
only make expenses, but are able to
save something every year.
The city clerk or city business man,
working in block and housed in
fiat, does not have one-half as much
opportunity to progress, in the truest
sense of the word, as does the farmer
ES