Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1907-01-12

bAN NAb hao AAANA AhA AhA IA bAA ~
the plane of business.
The term farmer" however, Gov
ers 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
agriculturist Of the West are both
farmers, but, by right of courtesy
are described by other titles, because
they carry farming into business, Oh
rather apply methods of business to
planting and harvesting.
The railroad may cease running
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
cloudiness. Most businesses may go
out of business, and the professional
list may no longer continue to prac-
and propagate. But where there is
no longer any farmer, there will be
no longer any people, for the world
will have starved to death
The farm, with what the farm
stands for, is the essential factor of
human maintenance
The farm, then, is an indispensa-
BILE necessity, without which the ma
tons would never have begun their
existence.
The wealth of the world is not in
its business, is not even in its miner
al resources, but consists in the Gull
tivation Of the earth's surface-in
the farm.
The farmer is the original pro-
Queer of that which makes life pos
sible, and without which no life can
be maintained.
The fundamental cornerstone of
all physical progress. was originally
placed upon the farm, and there it
will remain so long as we have physi-
cal natures and require material
food.
Farming is our industry, the in
dustry preservative of all industries
Notwithstanding the existence of
hundreds of abandoned farms, and
the constant exed cd Us US from the farm
u 94e 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 neith-
er notoriety nor prominence, but
quietly does his work, allowing
others to play at society and to re-
ceive it's shallow reward.
Here, however, has been made a
grievous mistake. The farmer, like
the lawyer, should be proud of his
profession, sufficiently appreciative
of it to contribute to 1t the full meas
ure of his self-respect. Because he
does not do so, he has lost both the
social and business prominence
which really belongs to his calling.
To be in love with our work does
not fully suffice. 1t is necessary to
have the love for the work so appear
before men that they may honor us,
and, by respecting us, be more will
ing to become of us or to help us.
Some farms do not pay, partly be-
cause some farms cannot be made to
pay. The barren farm is worthless
piece of property. The sooner it is
abandoned the better.
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 Indifference on the
part of the owners.
Altogether too many farmers, in
stead of working their farms, allow
their farms to work them. The stu
alton, or rather the farm, is their
master, instead of their being master
of the situation.
The principles of business, the
laws of progressive economy, are not
applied to the farm as they are to
other trades or businesses; conse-
Quently, the farmer is not always
financially well-to-do; and usually,
through no fault of the farm, but
because he does not exact what he
should from it,
The tendency to-day is unmistak-
ably away from the farm. The farm
er's boy, partly because he wants a
change, but largely because the great
unknown shines with a light appar-
emily 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 had experienced
it, where he may lead a life dia-
metrically different from that of his
childhood.
But the farmers boy is not alto
gether to blame for leaving the
farm. The fault, in more than half
the cases, is due to the farmer him
self and to the way the farm is con-
Quoted. The boy brought up upon
the farm which is not properly cul-
tivated, and where most of the work
is drudgery, or is made to be 'drudg-
cry, 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 elsewhere. Therefore, he
gravitates to the city, not so much
because he loves the city, but be.
cause he feels that that which he
knows nothing about, although he
may think he does, is better than
that which he does know about from
actual boyhood experience.
The farmer, rather than the farm
is driving the boy to the city, and
the boy is going to the city simply
because in a negative way he has
been forced cityward.
If the average farmer works hard
er than does the business man, it II
not always because he has to, bu'
generally because he thinks he must
do mt dauy that fhara 10 r,ucl