Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1907-01-10

I because in a negative way he has
been forced cityward.
If the average farmer works hard
er than does the business man, it is
not always because he has to, but
generally because he thinks he must.
! do not deny that there is much
| drudgery in farm labor-there is
So there is in almost any other call
ing or work. But the excess Of
drudgery is often the fault of the
drudge, not of the work itself.
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. The
farmer has as much time on his
hands, and generally more, than
does the city business man or pro.
fessional man. 1t may seem to him
that he works longer, but he does
not. AS matter Of fact, the chances
are that he works fewer hours than
does his city neighbor.
Lack of success in farming, unless
the farm be Enthusiastically barren,
generally comes from lack of intelli-
gent application. Altogether too
many farmers imagine that success
is wholly due to hard and laborious
labor. Labor is necessary to any
successful result, but the labor in
which the mind acts the part of part
ner is the kind which pays and which
farming is, and as small as is the
compensation it usually brings, it
gives the farmer more than is re-
ceived by the average city dweller-
more, even, of actual dollars and
cents.
The average city clerk, at the end
Of the year, has less money, and less
ready money, than has the farmer;
and the chances are that the city man
has worked harder, although he may
have enjoyed stated holidays and va
cations.
Although the average city busi-
ness may may take in more money
than the farmer can possibly gain
under the most favorable circum-
stances. he pays greater penalty
for what he obtains, and in the ma
jority of cases is worse off than is
the farmer.
If the farmer treated his work as
he should, and applied to it the in
telligence that is given to other
trades, he would reduce the drudg-
cry to minimum, and ready money
would not be stranger to him.
Nearly all farmers make living.
Comparatively few, of course, 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 produc-
ing Western soil, not only make ex-
penses, but are able to save some-
thing every year.
The farmer is seldom found in the
poorhouse.
From farmers children have
sprung the majority of our great
men, both of business and of the
professions.
Many a man, who does not know
anything about it, and therefore
speaks with positiveness, claims that
the farmers life is narrower than
most others, and that the farmer has
little opportunity to better civiliza-
ton. AS matter of fact, the farm
er, unless he is located miles from
the heart of progress. has better
opportunity to learn what he should
know than has the artificially-living
cityite, whose broadness consists not
SO much in the good things, but to
an alarming extent in the bad things,
of life.
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 on a fairly fertile farm,
working as his own master on his
own property.
hO Aai "Cib dpoNS ui othCl LlChp
is Independent. His vocation is the
only self-supporting business on
earth.
The successful farmer is man of
education, although he may not have
been book-taught. He is well
equipped, so far as general knowl-
edge is concerned, and, further, he Is
a man Of business.
With the modern periodicals, and
the distribution of every class Of
reading matter, the farmer has much
opportunity for mental development.
There always will be some poor
and half-starved men among farm
ers, but this class is far less promi.
nent upon the farm than in the
marts of business; and there are
ten times more impecunious city
workers than there are farmers in
actual want. But right here let 1t
be said that even the poorest farm
ers are better off than are the aver
age strugglers of the great city
From Starting in Life" published
by Little, Brown & Co., Boston, Mass.
Poet of Mushrooms.
Corneille is known as the poet OF
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