718 AGRICULTURE 



but sow he will, as surely as the spring comes; and when he sows, he 

 is almost certain to reap. As nature does more work for the farmer 

 than for any other producer, he finds it easier to turn out an almost 

 regular supply of his products. The sun himself is the commander- 

 in-chief of the agricultural army. The changing seasons order the 

 farmer's plowing, sowing, and reaping, and fundamentally every 

 series of human exchanges starts with the farmer. 



Good crops are always and everywhere makers of good times. 

 While this is true for all peoples and all lands, it is particularly true 

 of America, which from natural causes is the greatest agricultural 

 country in the world. In this country agricultural prosperity touches, 

 and for a long time to come will continue to touch, the lives and in- 

 terests of a larger proportion of the people than in any other land. 

 It causes immediately an advance in the standards of living and 

 a broadening in the scope of the demands of the largest number of 

 intelligent, progressive people; and it produces a home market of such 

 tremendous proportions as to furnish independently of foreign nations 

 a sufficient motive for the development of gigantic manufactures 

 and enormous trade. Further the American farmer is a man of so 

 much intelligence and such large wants that his standards of living 

 increase very rapidly with the improvement of his financial con- 

 dition. He is liberal to his family, ambitious for his children, and he 

 desires above everything else to raise their standard of living and to 

 increase their advantages in all ways beyond those which he himself 

 enjoyed in his youth. 



Another cause of the great economic influence of the American 

 farmer is found in the fact that as a rule he owns his own land. In 

 addition to the profit upon his labors he receives the rent on his land. 

 This not only puts a larger sum at his disposal, but it also creates a 

 motive for additional expenditure for improvements and equipments 

 upon that land. The American farmer, moreover, seldom hoards his 

 money, but promptly expends his surplus for improvements, or else 

 puts it in the bank, where others can use it. He is, all things considered, 

 the wisest and safest investor among us, and his prosperity is 

 therefore the greatest blessing that can possibly come to the nation. 

 Our conclusion is thus that the progress of agriculture is the greatest 

 practical concern of civilized man, and especially of the American. 



We have found that the problem of agriculture is to produce more 

 and better supplies for the support of human life under conditions 

 that will enable the farmer and his family, and with them the people 

 of the whole country, to live the happiest and most complete life 

 possible, a life which, as the decades and centuries pass, shall be con- 

 stantly expanding, strengthening, and growing deeper and richer. 

 The question, then, is "How shall agriculture do this ?" What pros- 

 pect is there that this art shall be able to supply these ever-increasing 



