Missouri Farm Facts. 453 



place emphasis upon this point. As has been recently written, "Running 

 a farm is a business proposition nowadays — nothing else. It demands 

 plain business sense ; and business sense dictates that the man shall know 

 all he can about what he proposes to do before diving headlong into it. ' ' 

 In this day of much lurid land literature, of exploitation through press 

 and pamphlet, and from platform — exploitation by experts — novices are 

 sometimes advised to rush in where veterans fear to venture. Placing 

 people on farms will not necessarily make farmers, but may, unless they 

 are thoroughly equipped, make failures. Those who heed "the call of 

 the country" should seek to see the practical and the prosaic as well as 

 the poetic and the emotional side. If the world is to be fed it must be 

 by men who know how to farm. We would not discourage the man whose 

 ambition it is to own a home in the country, but in simple justice he is 

 entitled to see both sides of the shield, to be told the plain truth, rather 

 than see the truth through a magnifying glass. It is not the purpose 

 of this bulletin to check the movement to the country, but rather to in- 

 crease it, insofar as it concerns those who understand the step and who 

 are qualified to make it, for the paramount problem is to keep enough 

 men on the farms to feed those in the factories. It is, then, of the utmost 

 importance that country conditions be such as to encourage those now on 

 the farms to stay there. Even if the farmer feels that he is entitled to 

 retire from active work it is nearly always better for himself, better for 

 the country — and sometimes for the town, too — that he retire on the 

 farm. 



The following from Agricultural Education, published by the Kan- 

 sas Agricultural College, is to the point: 



"The best panacea for the condition of unrest and dissatisfaction 

 with rural life is a joy in excellence of production. I do not find that the 

 boy who, by intelligent study and scientific management, is able to pro- 

 duce seventy-five bushels of corn per acre or who is able to win a premium 

 at a fair on a well-groomed colt, is at all dissatisfied with country life. 

 The girl who is able to win a prize at the farmers' institute for the best 

 loaf of bread is not usually fretting because she cannot clerk in a mil- 

 linery store. Joy in doing things well drives out the spirit of unrest. 

 The pride that comes with increased power — power' to grow corn or 

 stock, power to bake or sew, and do it well — will dignify the daily duties 

 of the farm and home. The joy in seeing things grow, the trees to bud 

 and flower, the corn to grow and put forth its blades, the ear, and then 

 'the full grain in the ear,' the flowers to put forth their blooms, only 

 for the few, careless, whether seen by man or not — this joy can come 



