The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1920-03-22
ZEAL ChsIh3EEER N AGRICULTURE
A Higher Dignity For Ths Great susl.
ness Of Farmers.

speaks Holy Scripture, and all eXper'
ience confirms its truth.
The most important consideration.
therefore, for the farmer is his attitude
toward his farm. What does he think
about it.-what does he think about
farming? Does he love his fields and
woods ?Does his eye rest with peculiar
fCndness on his sleek mules and tat
cattle? Does he feel in his very soul
that farming is high calling, the only
vocation for him: Or does he value
fields and woods and cattle in terms
me.e ely of money? Will he sell them all
! Tor price, and gladly turn away from
them forever? Is he farmer by chance
or by choice? Has he simply inherit
ed" farm? Is he a farmer because he
knows no other way Of making a liV'
ing" because it may seem to him tAe
easiest most Independent life? Has he
looked the world and its businesses in
the face, and deliberately decided that,
as for him, the piow and the fresh
earth upturned, and the growing plant
have charms above all?
Before any further real progress can
be made In the development OF our
country life, that country life must be
saturated with love OF the country.
Many more farmers there must be,
whose determination to stay on the
arm is quite as fixed al their determin'
alton to win success, and comfort and
happiness, for themselves and their
families, by means Of their farming.
Such farmers will not be bribed by
sudden rise in the prices OF farm lands
to "sell out" and move to a neighbor-
ing town. They will not be driven away
by labor troubles. They may sell part
Of their holdings, but they will still
cling to the soil. BY the use OF modern
machinery in the home and on the
farm, they will so multiply personal
efficiency as to reduce greatly the num-
Der OF laborers, and increase the output
of all who work. These farmers will be
fully persuaded in their own minds,
that they above men in other callings
have opportunity to raise strong healthy
children. They will appreciate at their
true worth, the breeze blowing clear
and pure over the wheat. the sight OF
cattle on the hill feeding slowly home
ward, the run in the woods after nuts
for the children's growth, both OF body
and mind Who but the farmer car
! furnish in abundance to his children
clean milk, fresh eggs, tender vegeta
bles. home-raised bread and meat? The
medical records Of the Selective Draft
Board have Just revealed that the
healthiest zone in the United States lie
from North to South, practically CO
incident with the zone Of greatest
agricultural development. the great
| Mississippi Valley. May not the more
;hundant food supHly there be the
secret of the stronger, healthier
young men?
Bread" is the universal human cry
Only the farmer can furnish it. Nc
other occupation fills so fundamental
, need. Preacher, lawyer, doctor, mer'
chant, manufacturer, banker,-we can
rot do without them, but their import
once to society is less than the farm
er's. The first occupation both in point
! Of time and point Of logic is farming
And the farmer the real farmer, will
realize that he is, under God, the dis
penser of the bounties of Nature to his
hungry fellowmen. He will value his
profession accordingly.
The very practice ct The art OF
farming affords opportunity tc
the farmer to grow to the full
mentally and spiritually. He is
not derendent on men and thing:
as other men are. He Is dependent
on cloud and sunshine, on the hidden
processes OF life; that is, he is depend
ent on the wisdom, power and goodness
Of God He ought to be a better man
for it. Just because the farm gives this
opportunity for closer relationship with
the Lord Of life, there is higher dig
nty about this business than we have
| commonly accorded it. We have looked
at the dirty hand, and the bent back,
and we have called the farmer uncouth
and his profession unclean. The world
has taught him to despise his work and
himself. It admires the skill OF the
great surgeon, but forgets the years
he spent in the gruesome work OF the
dissecting g-room. It praises the artist
sho sings song, or writes a story, or
paints a picture, but the artist who
gave us our breeds OF cattle. or strains
Of wheat or corn, our improved meth
ords Of tillage, are almost unknown.
Yet their reward Is with them. In the
quiet, even in the obscurity OF their
farms, they so lived and worked that
mankind is perpetually their debtor.
Your farming holds the possibility