116 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



immediate and universal adoption, because it represents a nearer 

 approach to truth than the present method. 



Now in applying this method to present conditions, we see that 

 if these figures are based upon anything like fact, if they represent 

 even approximate truth, they show more clearly and more eloquent- 

 ly than any words of mine could show that the average farmer of 

 Missouri is not truly prosperous, and more than that, they show 

 that his lack of prosperity is no fault of his and never has been. 



It has been argued that the farmer does not prosper because 

 he follows faulty methods of labor ; but I have calculated his labor 

 at a maximum efficiency and for only two-fifths of the time, and 

 yet he plays a losing game. 



It has been argued that the farmer does not prosper because 

 ne is too wasteful with his crops ; but I have shown you that if he 

 sells every grain of his corn, his oats and his wheat, and every 

 straw of his hay, without the loss of a single pound, he still loses 

 money on every crop he grows. 



It has been argued that the farmer does not prosper because 

 he neglects to take proper care of his tools, implements, stock, 

 buildings, etc. ; but the figures I have used in this chart do not in- 

 clude a single penny for the purchase of implements, work horses 

 or anything of the kind. 



It has been argued that the farmer does not prosper because 

 his average crop yield is too small ; but I have shown you that were 

 he to increase his yield even to the enormous extent of 50 per cent, 

 he would still be losing money on every acre he cultivates. 



And, finally, it has been argued that the farmer does not 

 prosper because he is ignorant; and our whole system of state and 

 national work in the various departments of agriculture is based 

 largely upon this theory. Millions of dollars have been spent, and 

 train-loads of literature and advice have been sent out to the farmer 

 for the purpose of enlightening him so that he may learn how to 

 prosper. The idea seems never to have occurred to us that possibly 

 after all, the real truth might be better stated by saying that the 

 farmer is not poor because he is ignorant so much as he is ignorant 

 because he is poor. Why, if American agriculture were what it 

 should be, if it were put upon a profitable basis as many of our 

 other big businesses are, the colleges and universities of this land 

 would be filled to overflowing with the sons and daughters of our 

 farmers. 



Now the reason the average Missouri farmer is not truly 

 prosperous has never yet so far as I know, been told ; but it doesn't 



