The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1907-01-10

In the worlds dictionary the farm
er is defined as plain tiller OF soil.
and the agriculturist or planter as
one who has lifted the farm on to
the plane of business.
The term farmer" however, COW
ers that vast company OF workers,
who, by the planting of the seed,
raise any kind of 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, or
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-
tise, yet people will continue to live
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
ito 1swould 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 cul-
tivation of the earths snrface-in
the farm.
The farmer is the original pro-
ducer 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 1t
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 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 neith-
er notoriety nor prominence, but
quietly does his work, allowing
others to play at society and to re-
ceive its 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-hali
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 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 theil
master, instead of their being master
of the situation.
The principles of business, the
laws of progressive economy, are moi
applied to the farm as they are tC
other trades or businesses; conse
luently, the farmer Is not always
financially weil-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 {
change, but largely because the grea
unknown shines with a light appar
emily brighter than all the lights ht
has ever seen, desires to leave tn,
farm and to earn his living unde
entirely different conditions, ava,
from Nature as he had experienced
1t, where he may lead a life dia
metrically different from that of hi
childhood.
But the farmers boy is not alto
gether to blame for leaving tn,
farm. The fault, in more than hal
the cases, Is due to the farmer him
self and to the way the farm is con
Quoted. The boy brought up upol
the farm which is not properly cul
tivated, and where most of the worl
is drudgery, or is made to be drudg
cry, where intellectual growth /
stunted, naturally, in the ignoranc
OF his youth, assumes that all farm
are like the farm of his childhood
and that the opportunities of lif
must be elsewhere. Therefore, h