The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1920-04-02
ZEAL CAREER IN AGRICULTURE.
A Higher Dignity For The GREAT BusIs
ness Of Farmers.

speaks Holy Scripture, and all exper.
ience confirms it's 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 fat
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
merely Of money? Will he sell them all
for 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 be
knows no other way Of making a iiv.
ing" because it may seem to him the
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
sarm 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 can
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 is
from North to South, practically CO.
incident with the zone OF greatest
agricultural development, the great
Mississippi Valley. May not the more
abundant food supply there be the
secret Of the stronger, healthier
young men?
Bread" is the universal human cry
other occupation fills so fundamental
a need. Preacher, lawyer, doctor, mer.
chant manufacturer, banker,-we can
not do without them, but their import
ance 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
pcnser of the bounties of Nature to his
hungry fellowmen. He will value his
profession accordingly.
The very practice c. The art OF
farming affords opportunity tc
the farmer to grow to the full,
mentally and spiritually. He is
not dependent on men and things
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 better man
for 1t. 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
hin.elf II admires the skill Of the
great surgeon, but forgets the years
he spent in the gruesome work OF the
disseoting.room. It praises the artist
who sings a song, or writes story OF
paints a picture, but the artist VINO
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 tnei1
farms. they so lived and worked that