THE FUTURE OF THE FARMER. 65 



ruin to all the great agricultural states of that district. But in 

 the end this was a blessing for it taught the proprietors of agri- 

 cultural states that development of a different sort was necessary 

 for permanent progress. Hired labor and intensive farming are 

 to prove a greater success to the southern agriculturists than the 

 most expanded system of slave labor and extensive farming. 



Much of this lesson had been learned in the northern states 

 before the Revolution. But still more was to be learned. The 

 vast tracts of soil suitable for farming west of the Allegheny 

 mountains and west of the Mississippi river, served for years to 

 earn a living for all comers. But difficulties of transportation 

 prevented the moving of surplus crops to a profitable market. 

 The tremendous multiplication of railways and steamship lines 

 in the past quarter of a century has made it possible for farmers 

 in almost every section of the United States to send their surplus 

 crops to a profitable market, but the objections to living in these 

 remote districts still operated to prevent the best results. 



While there was opportunity to sell crops for cash, the farmer 

 and his family lived at such great distances from the social 

 centers that the isolation itself became a burden. Many gave up 

 their residences in the country to move to the cities and engage 

 in different employment, merely for the sake of society. This 

 made it difficult to obtain sufficient labor for carrying on the 

 agriculture of the country in a successful manner. But no sooner 

 does a great difficulty become apparent than some genius dis- 

 covers a method of overcoming it, and in the past quarter of a 

 century so many improvements have been made in means of 

 communication and transportation that one can scarcely find a 

 spot on the face of the earth where he would be so isolated as 

 were farmers only a decade ago. 



The tremendous multiplication of industrial enterprises and 

 the great growth of the cities increase the demand for agricul- 

 tural products, and more crops can be raised and better prices 

 obtained without glutting the market. 



Again, the intelligence of the man conducting the enterprise 

 is his best capital. While the earth, with careless treatment, 

 may produce sufficient for the existence of a few, with the intel- 

 ligent culture it will supply an almost unlimited demand. The 

 farmers have been becoming more and more intelligent. Not 



