TuE Bulletin. 53 



him and his family that were hardly thoiif,'lit of by the farmer of ycwtonlay. llift 

 aocial condition is chanp;ing and iinist ciian<;o if he is to live on a soci;il plane 

 witii men of otlier callings lankinj^ in importance with the frreat Ini^iiiesH of 

 a'^riciiltnre; money to him of to-day is not a need hut an ahsohite iie(»?H>ily. I 

 would not pose as advocatinj^ the fidlowiny hy the farmer and iiis family of every 

 whim of fashion set by tiie idle ricli, but if tlie farmer's family shall aHsociute 

 on an equality with the families of men en<ra<red in other renuinerative lines of 

 worlc, he must provide a decently furnislied home. If his sons and daii^hters are 

 to start on the same level with tiie city hoy and f;irl. they must he as well eilucated 

 in order that they may he onahlcd to give of the fruit of tlieir minds as well ns to 

 receive from others. They must be modestly and becominjxly clothed, have books, 

 pajiers and other periodicals in order to store their brains with the i<leas and iileaU 

 that the great writers are giving to the world. All this [joints to the fact that 

 the twentieth century farmer nuist be a business man, tliat ho may secure in an 

 honorable way the cash required to properly imjjrove his soil so as to enable him 

 to harvest ever increasing crops, but must have judgment sullicient to enable him 

 to Iiandle the products of his acres in a way that will return him tlie most dollars 

 and at the same time allow him to retain tiie largest amount possible of tiie soil 

 building properties the crops contain. The purchasing end re(piires the same 

 degree of business skill as does the soiling end, as bad buying will as often deplete 

 the farmer's net income as will poor sales. The twentieth century farmer in 

 North Carolina siiouid be — because of his numbers — the controlling power in the 

 political life of the State, but he will never be this so long as he allows some 

 person engaged in another line of work to do his thinking for him; bijcause so 

 long as he allows the other fellow to do his thinking and planning, he will be 

 simply the tool or moutiipiece of tiie better trained man and be used to do his 

 will. I am not hinting that the other fellow's way may not be a good w:iy for 

 him and his business, but we want the farmer to use his political as well as 

 other powers to care for his business, as it is a noticeable fact that men in other 

 lines are pretty generally looking out for their own fences. 



What may we gather from the foregoing? This, I believe, that the twentieth 

 century farmer must needs have a general cleaning up and remodeling of the 

 shop where he does his thinking. He nmst discard many of the notions handed 

 down from the previous century, must take up a line of thinking that his father 

 knew nothing of, must get away from the notion that the farm is only a place to 

 stay until something better turns up, must take hold of the fact that in this 

 twentieth century farming has become a business, a business that requires capital 

 of both cash andbrains for its proper handling, and he who thinks to the contrary 

 is going to be sidetracked before he has gone far. 



Tliis man must, as this century forges along, come to own the title of educated, 

 trained, thinking business man and conscientious citizen, and when he has earned 

 this title he will stand as tlie peer of any man. whatever his profession may be.: 

 for then he will be recognized as the master of something. Our farmers as a 

 class do not measure up to tiiese twentieth century requirements, and to see that 

 the generation coming on does rise to the needs of tlie time is, I bidieve, one of 

 the greatest problems before us to-day, for Nortli Carolina needs notliing more 

 to-day than she needs real farmer citizens. So this training of great farmers is 

 a duty we owe to our State, and it should be a privilege that every patriotic 

 citizen will enjoy— this work of training men for the mastery of the greatest 

 business of Noith Carolina. It should be a work of love to which every father 

 and mother on the farm will turn with gladness, knowing full well that the 

 brightest of their sons are fit foundations on which to rear able, thinking, master- 

 furfarmers. The mother esi)ecially must get away from tiie idea— which has 

 been altogether too commonly held in years past— that the bright hoy is too good 

 material to make a farmer of. This may have been the case in the nineteenth 

 century — though I have my doubts about it being true then — but it is not to-day, 

 for if we can see truly what the future holds for the real farmer, there is much 

 of promise in the vision. The fathers of North Carolina should,. I believe, take 

 their farm boys into their own lives, invite their confidence, and having gained 

 this, fill their minds so full of the ideas of the nobility of the farmer's work in 

 the world, the cleanness and joy of life lived in the country, and tlie financial 

 returns, that no other life will appeal to them as does the life on the farm. 



