SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 873 



our land is dear if you only consider how comparatively small a portion 

 of the land of this great country is fertile. You can ride for days on the 

 different railroads through land only fit for mining or raising cactus, and 

 all the population must be fed from the fields of the middle states. This 

 is the grandest country on the globe for a poor man to make a start. I 

 can well remember when my father worked hard all day for fifty cents 

 per day, and he said that was more than he had been in the habit of 

 getting in England, and I have heard men from Sweden and Denmark 

 say they have worked many a day for ten cents per day in those old 

 countries. I am quite optimistic and can see limitless possibilities for 

 our country. Do you ask how they can be obtained? My answer is to 

 give the right of suffrage to women so they can cast their votes with the 

 men of good morals (as they seem to be in the minority) and thus exter- 

 minate the greatest enemy this country has ever known or ever will know, 

 the enemy that makes more poverty, more suicides, more broken hearts 

 and deserted homes than everything else combined — the dreadful traffic 

 In liquor and tobacco. 



THE RELATION OF THE FARMER AND BANKER 



EDWARD F. LARSON, BEFORE HATSXC'OCK COUNTY FARMERS INSTITUTE. 



In speaking of the relation between the farmer and the banker, refer- 

 ence is made to those living in rural districts, where the leading industry 

 la farming, for they rarely deal directly with each other in the large 

 cities, because it is inconvenient. 



Few realize at first thought how closely the interests of the farmer and 

 the banker are connected and how beneficial the one is to the other. If 

 they were to suddenly cease doing business with each other, the result 

 would be very plainly felt; in fact, it would be a public calamity with 

 very serious results. 



It would be absolutely impossible for the world to get along without 

 the farmer, for every one knows that the bread and butter for every human 

 being comes from the farm. The business of farming has progressed with 

 years like all other business pursuits, until to-day w^e find the industry 

 so highly advanced and so closely interwoven with practically all other 

 industries, vhat to separate it from other lines of business would be very 

 difficult and a disastrous thing to do. It would ruin the business of the 

 whole country, and prosperity would be a thing of the past. 



Farming antedates all other business pursuits and so long as time 

 shall last, it will continue to be the basis of all prosperity and the source 

 to which we must look for our daily bread. It is interesting to note how 

 quickly the effect of a good crop is felt now-a-days. It affects business 

 like no other factor. The good news is flashed on the wires all over the 

 world, and it immediately stimulates every conceivable line of business. 

 It promotes confidence like nothing else can do and is the very elixir of 

 life in the business world. There is nothing else which bears so great an 



