Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1910-09-16
WHO IS THE Sue
CESSFUL FARMER?

OLSJt VI nNWItNs
Extract from an address to this years gradual.
ing class OF Ohio University by DIR. Washington
Gladden.
| may fairly assume that those among
you who are 10 be farmers have beer
studying agriculture i'm the university,
and that you have got some inkling OF
the need of mixing brains with husban-
dry. You surely do not need to be told
of the manifold problems that wait for
solution, in the reclamation of waste
lands, in the improvement of the soil
and it's products, in the reforestation OF
the hills. in the making the wilderness
TO bring forth and bud that it may give
seed to the sower and bread to the
eater" in socializing the countryside
that the people dwelling there shall find
the stimulation and the soace of good
companions and the opportunity of a
rewarding culture.
If these aspects of your work as farm
ers loom large before your thoughts, if
it is by these that your enthusiasm is
aroused and your energies are directed,
am sure that you are in fair way to
become highly educated men. And this,
| assume. is what you want to be. The
main thing that you want to get out of
this calling of yours for yourselves is a
large, fruitful, noble manhood.
fou expect, and you have a right to
expect. that you will get comfortable
living out of your work, enough to eat
and to wear; that you will have an at
tractive and beautiful home; and there
is not much reason to fear that the man
who puts brains and enthusiasm into
the business of farming will not get as
much as that out of it, or something
more. But this something more is not
your first concern. Your main question
is not how large gains you can make,
but how you can most fully and worthily
express and realize your life in this
calling you have chosen.
You have a neighbor, perhaps, who
went into this business for the money
there was in ii and who has come to the
end of his working life with big
balance in the bank, with safeful OF
productive securities. with three or -four
automobiles and all the outward signs
of abundance. But how has he done it?
He has skinned 1000 or 1000 acres of
good land, leaving it perceptibly poorer
than when it came under his hand; he
has neglected all opportunities of self
Improvement: he has pushed his interests
with no regard to the welfare of his
neighbors; he has sown broadcast as
every selfish man always does, the seed
of dissension and suspicion and i'll will.
OF course. in the process his own per-
sonslity has steadily withered anG
dwindled. Most men, looking at the
balance in the bank and the contents oi
the safe, call him a successful farmer.
Do you? If ali men were such as he
society would cease to exist and the
earth would be nninhabitable.
He furnishes you. nevertheless, an
excellent object lesson Of the kind OF
man you do not want to be. trus,
that the sight of him may inspire you
with the ambition to live in such way
that when your working days are ovel
some one who knows you well may bt
able to say of you. ''He is not pluto
erat: he is not leaving to his children
any accumulation OF stocks and bond
by means of which they will be able t,
live in idleness on the labor of futur,
generations. But look at his farm. Sc
the fertile meadows where once wer
swamps; see the new forest clothing tn
once-bared hillside; see the GROWN,
crops and fine farm buildings; see tn
splendid herd and flock that enrich tn
pastures; look at the records that tie
of the fruits and grains he has developed
of The pests he has stamped out: hi
own farm will sustain four times a
much life today as when he began I
till it and every farmer in the land
his debtor.
"And see what he has made of hin
self. He is the brightest man in til
country: these studies and experiment
of his have been quickening his intellet
and leading his mind out into many frui
full fields of knowledge and culture ar
all these gains he has been free to shal
with all his neighbors; if you want
know what kind of a man he is, as
3 them. He is the heart and soul of 9
neighborhood life; he has done mo-
than any other man to promote go,
, will and friendship in the countrysic
and to make it pleasant place for m.
ard women and boys and girls to live.
If something like that can be sa
about you when the end comes. then
will be clear that the foundations la