No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 281 



true of all farmers, but we would gladly hasten the day when it will 

 be true of none. The conditions that have surrounded farm life 

 in the past have, without doubt, had much to do in bringing about 

 this feeling; but have not those conditions changed sufliciently to 

 enable the farmer to engage proudly and happily in his work? His 

 isolation from society, and lack of opportunity for reading and cul- 

 ture had a tendency to place him at a disadvantage which he keenly 

 felt; but now, in the thickly settled eastern country, at least, there 

 are few who cannot enjoy the society of cultivated people — while 

 the low price of the very best reading places is within the reach of 

 nearly every family; that is a sufficient quantity of it to make each 

 member thoroughly conversant with the leading subjects of the diay. 

 And not only that, but each is enabled to take a course of home study 

 in any particular branch which has a special fascination for him. 

 Again, there is no other class of workers w'ho have in the past, 

 taken up their life work with so little preparation — so little special 

 training for it; eo few have considered farming as a science — to be 

 placed on a par with other sciences, and studied accordingly: the 

 causes that produce certain results follow'ed up as closely as the laws 

 of philosophy and chemistry are when applied to other lines of work. 

 But the farmer now realizes that he must learn the fundamental prin- 

 ciples which govern his w^ork; must learn to discriminate between 

 the different kinds of food for his stock — whether milk, butter or fat 

 producing — must know the elements necessary in the soil to pro- 

 duce certain crops, which of those elements are contained in the soil 

 of his farm, and how to supply those that are lacking at least ex- 

 pense and labor. With a cultured mind and a brain trained to grasp 

 the laws that govern his work the farmer will be as proud of his 

 knowledge as his brother, the banker, is of being conversant with 

 those law's that control the finances of our country, and will be ready 

 to meet him on his own level without cringing or apology. When 

 the farmer invests his calling with the dignity that properly belongs 

 to it, he will lift it to its proper place — -high among the other profes- 

 sions. In days that are past the farmer was w^ont to think of him-^ 

 self as an individual, a solitary soldier fighting his life battle alone 

 in the w^orld's great field, with no thought of asking aught of his 

 government, not even of his >State Legislators, who, after obtaining 

 their election by means of his vote, instantly became his autocrats, 

 holding his destiny in their mighty hands, and making him to under- 

 stand that between him and them yawned a great gulf, w'hich he 

 must never attempt to cross, as they were much better qualified to 

 judge of his needs than a poor son of the soil could possibly be. Buc 

 the railroads, telegraphs, telephones, the multiplying printing presses 

 and newspapers, all those modern inventions which are bringing 

 the ends of the earth closer together, with the aid of now and then a 

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