Report of Missouri Farmers' Week. 



313 



Mrs. Miller. 



CONSERVATION ON THE MISSOURI FARM. 



(Mrs. Mabel Miller, Osceola, Mo.) 



Elbert Hubbard has told us that the two best elements of 



mankind are the tendencies to love and 

 labor. We all agree with Mr. Hubbard, but 

 would add that conservation means a great 

 deal to us today and still more to the man 

 of tomorrow. To be sure, love is the great- 

 est part of man, but we can not love our 

 fellow beings without in some way serving, 

 and to serve is to labor and to labor is to 

 work. 



Work for mankind is every individual's 

 duty, and most people's pleasure, as the 

 busiest folks today are the happiest. The 

 idler represents the miserable individual 

 and a class of unrest. For proof that man 

 loves his fellow beings we have but to look at the farmer. Why 

 does he till the soil, why produce grain and live stock? Not merely 

 because he loves the soil or produce, for he does not raise corn 

 because he loves a crib of corn, or buy and raise stock because he 

 loves live stock, although he may care for it in a way, as we all have 

 our preference in lines of work. The man does not lose sleep, or 

 leave his comfortable fireside to go down to the farrowing pens and 

 work with the young pigs or lambs just because he loves them. But 

 he loves life and he loves to help produce these things which have 

 life. He labors, not only for his personal profit but for the good 

 of humanity, because he loves his family, his neighbors, and the 

 masses who must have food, shelter, and raiment. In this work is a 

 huge degree of conservation. 



The surgeon does not operate on the human body because he 

 loves to cut and sew, but he performs operations and disinfects 

 the wound, then proceeds to dress it. And why? Because he loves 

 human life and wishes to conserve it. The stockman conserves the 

 life of the brute, and hence builds a bank account for himself and 

 family, and saves useful animals for the needs of humanity. And 

 so it is from love and labor to conservation. 



Conservation is the one great need of today, but tomorrow's 

 generation will need the results of our conservation more than we 

 need conservation at the present time. 



