The ]\Ls.x with the Hoe. 213 



pie very clearly when he said, " Property is desirable, is a positive 

 good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others 

 may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and 

 enterprise." It is the criminal misuse of wealth which irritates 

 the public mind, yet there never was a time in the history of the 

 world when the possessors of great wealth were doing so much 

 for society and for the poor. Men are coming more and more to 

 comprehend that their fortunes are held in trust; that wealth 

 has been given them for the divine purpose of helping and mak- 

 ing better the world in which we all must live. There is danger 

 and menace in idleness, whether forced or voluntary. 



It is natural for healthy men to like work, bodily exertion, stren- 

 uous struggle. Our college-bred young men must row a boat, 

 play baseball or kick a football. If our field work could be done 

 with the same spirit of zest and good cheer, it would go far to 

 solve the labor problem for the farmer. Once there was a wise 

 father who induced his young son to cut down a whole field of 

 mullein and other noxious weeds by telling him they were hostile 

 Indians to be exterminated. Imagination is a very good thing to 

 cultivate — in moderation. 



Industrial prosperity will not be permanently established until 

 the wages, profits and perquisites of the agriculturist are large 

 enough to tempt men voluntarily to adopt that profession; until 

 the State and government shall reduce to a minimum its own pre- 

 rogatives, thereby attracting young men to independent callings 

 which demand individual effort and personal exertion; in brief, 

 not until we have a social state in which the politician and the 

 idle man shall receive less consideration than the farmer, the 

 manufacturer and the trader. 



It would be a great help to American agriculture if we could 

 make rural life fashionable here as it is in England. When the 

 English tradesman or manufacturer has made his fortune, he 

 immediately seeks the country and becomes a landed proprietor. 

 To possess a country place is a sure indication of prosperity and 

 success. It frequently opens the social door to his family which 

 otherwise they could never hope to enter. Our American farmer, 

 and village merchant, take a different view. He and his family 

 often spend their best years working and saving, in the hope of 

 one day being able to reside in that mecca of their ambition — the 



