Devils Lake weekly world., 1913-08-01
THE FARMER AND H1s AUTO.


first half Of the state fair, there has |
been coming into the city. from all di-
zections procession of rigs from the
country in which the automobile was
much more numerous than any other
form of conveyance. This will con-
tinue during the entire fair. 1t is not
new thing, but one which has come
about during the past few years, and
with the rapid change in other di-
rections, the change from the farm
team and buggy to the farm auto has
come without attracting great atten-
tion. These rigs are coming into and
going out Of town all through the sea-
son. It takes the assemblage of a great
crowd to force them upon our atten-
tion.;. z
The farm automobile is not the
plaything Of the youngster on the
farm Naturally the farmers son
takes the auto to 60 riding with his
girl, as he should. But the farm au.
tomobile, as we see it from. day to day.
is as often driven by the farmer him
self as by his son. The elderly man
is seen at the steering wheel, the man
with scanned countenance and bron7.
ea skin, bespeaking long years spent
iu the open, whefe sun and wind had
chance At him. And he seems 10
feel as thoroughly at home in the gaso.
lae wagon az be did few years ago
behind team Of lively stepping horeos.
Some writers on economics have
become greatly alarmed over the
spread of the automobile habit among
the farmers. The auto, they believed,
was hne thing for the merchant or
the baker, and permissible to the
sslaried man in the city, but for the
farmer to get the habit was disastrous.
Who would be left to till the fields
and raise the crops, and milk the
cows, and. feed the hogs, if the farm
er took to riding in an automobilei
The thing was not to be thought of.
Still it has come to pass. and the
world continues to revolve in its ac-
customed manner.
Perhaps more fully than any other
man in the world the farmer who has
made a success Of his business has
earned his automobile, and has not
only legitimate use, but real need for
it. On him more than on any other
man the whole structure of our busi-
ness and social life rests. He has till
ed the fields and gathered the grain.
and lived life Of freedom and indie
pendence which has infused strength
srd solidity into the very fibre of our
rational life. He has given the world
Of his very best, and ns is entitled
to the hest return that the world cal.
:-;.le him. The conditions Of his oc.
cu'.a,.s:, h:ve deprived aim IF peby
Of the advantages which others have
enjoyed. He has lived remote from
others, and has been obliged to make
tremendous exertions in order to min
gle with his fellows and keep at all
abreast of the times. The convent.
ences which have been devised with
in recent years are doing great things
for him and his family, and perhaps
none of these is of more importance
than the automobile. With it the long
tiresome trip that consumed an entire
day is made in an hour or two A
jaunt of forty or fifty miles, which not
long ago could be planned on for only
once in several years, is made as a
matter of course any day when the
weather is fair, the roads good, and
the work little slack. AS business
convenience the auto is one of the
most useful things that the farmer caa
have, and it's influence on his social
life is something the Importance #
which can scarcely be estimated at its
true value.
Life on the farm is being deprived
OF its solitude and its remoteness.
With the things now easily available
to him the farmer is as much in the
center of things as is the city man.
in availing himself of these things he
sacrificed none Of the natural advan+.
ages which are his. Still ma; he 81.
Joy the wide freedom of hs !,..ils. tn"
deep draughts of unpo"l; / air the
communion with nature AMI th, IN.
dependence which the roc Of a pro.
ducer of vide vari .tv OF necessities
gives him. And in at1u',,. his dis
tances have been shortened, his hours
Il for pleasure and so::isl int .r.onrsc
multiplied and his opportunities for =
well rounded, well balanced life i'm
measufably increased. Let us rejoice
that the farmer ean afford to ride in
his own automobile le.-Gfand Forks
Herald.
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