470 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



When men and industry went to the city, capital went too, and the 

 country was like the shell of the cocoon when the butterfly has flown. 



'i'lieie is anullK'i- phase of this niijiialioii which seems to have escMjted 

 attention, and an understanding of which will save us much anxiety 

 and prevent the drawing of many false conclusions. The farmer is his 

 own master. He works for himself. As a rule, he does not employ more 

 than one or two men, and these not permanently. Comparatively few 

 men are endowed with talents which fit them for the executive manage- 

 ment of a. business. Consider the ycmng men of any rural community. 

 How many of them can manage a business? How many can sell the 

 X)roduce of a single farm to advantage? These men go to the city, and 

 are ( niployed. One in a thousand — nay, one in ten thousand — rises to the 

 t)Wuership or directorship of the business; we all compare thc^ farnu^r with 

 this one I You contrast the condition of the small farmer with that of 

 the manufacturer; must you not rather contrast the farmer with the 

 workingman or the tradesman? Must you not compare one man with 

 one man, one dollar's capital with one dollar's capital, not one man with 

 the combined productiveness and vital force of two hundred well-trained 

 men? The manufacturer makes money not only from his wares, but 

 from his workmen. Men are part of his capital, which, by superior tact 

 and skill, he makes productive. The farmer has only his wares to sell. 

 Compare the average John who went to the city with the average John 

 who sttiyed on tlie farm, and the farmer will not suffer thereby. And the 

 average Jane — well when John went, Jane went, too! 



W(j must remember, too, that the farmer's business is generalized. The 

 1'an»iei- is })ropiietor, capitalist, warehouseman, employer, laborer, all in 

 one. The business man is a specialist, and meets competition at one 

 point. The farmer meets competition upon all sides. One man cannot 

 be four or five men with advantage to himself. 



All the shifting unrest of this transition period was intensified by 

 the sudden opening of the virgin lands of the West. The great new 

 country nmst be settled, and lands which, had they been in the East, 

 would have been worth one hundred dollars an acre, were almost forced 

 upon the home-seeker. This came at a time when the armies of the 

 Civil War were disbanding, and hundreds of men who had no ties of 

 land or business hastened to the country beyond the Mississippi. The 

 result was that the eastern country was again drained of its young men 

 and its ca])ital, and the West was settled too rapidly for its own good. 

 Sjieculation. which is wont to precede the agricultural occupation of the 

 country, became a passion. It was an experimental era, and experi- 

 menters rarely make money. Men took np too much land. The markets 

 were far lemoved. Oiily the staple products could be grown. The 

 vagaries of the climate were not well understood, and in the absence of 

 judicious management of his conditions, and in the presence of many 

 circumstances bevond his control, the farmer either ])roduced enormous 

 crops or almost failed. Such unstable and unpredictable results pro- 

 duce unrest. The mortgages of the speculative era matured, and the 

 over-stimulated town collapsed. The crisis has come; and since manu- 

 facturing interests are small, agriculture takes the brunt. It is the natur- 

 j)l les'nlj of over-flevelo]tment, of too ra])id and too fictitious settlement. 

 The discouragements may be very great; but although there are various 

 emoll'ents, which may soothe and pacify, the only complete healer is 

 Time! 



