Does Farming Pay ? 



By Rev. O. T. Fletcher, Altamont, N. Y. 



Judging from certain conditions as they prevail to-day one 

 might conclude that farming did not pay. That conclusion is 

 easily arrived at if one considers only the fact of the exodus of 

 the population from the country to the city, or the heavily mort- 

 gaged condition of the great majority of the farming property 

 of the State, or the run-down condition of so many farms, or the 

 low ijrice of farm produce and the high price of farm labor 

 and farm machinery; and, along with these facts, hears the 

 farmers' cry of " hard times," " poor crops," and '' heavy taxes." 

 These things would seem to say, " Farming does not pay." 



But not by these signs alone can the question be correctly 

 answered. The profitableness of farming depends upon two fac- 

 tors, viz.: the farm and the farmer. And the former depends for 

 its worth as a factor upon the ability of the latter. The State 

 recognizes this fact and is seeking to make farming a more profit- 

 able business by improving, not the farm, but the farmer. The 

 State hopes to enhance the value of farming to the farmer, not 

 by lessening taxes or by giving bounties, but by equipping the 

 farmer for better work. 



There are three kinds of farmers who never make farming pay. 

 Farming does not pay to the indolent farmer. The man that is 

 lazy cannot succeed on the farm. Nor can those fellows who 

 sit around the corner grocery or blacksmith shop and cry " hard 

 times " when they -ought to be at work. Away back in the be- 

 ginning, God said to the first man, " In the sweat of thy face shalt 

 thou eat bread." What wonder is it that he doesn't have it, if he 

 doesn't sweat for it. 



Ben Franklin, you know, said: 



" He that by the plow would thrive, 

 Himself must either hold or drive." 



