BY J. B. HENDEBSON, F.I.C. XUl, 



the cost to the State of doing the pioneering would easily 

 and certainly be repaid by the increased value of the land. 

 Good agricultural land is one of the few assets which seems 

 never to fall in value — -as the population increases the 

 value of such land also increases. The unnecessary waste 

 of time and capital and lii'^e in the single handed and other 

 ignorant methods of our pioneers, is probably one of the 

 most serious wastes in our national life. It means not only 

 time and capital gone — -the crushing, physical strain often 

 lowers the worker almost to the level of a working animal. 

 He is up before daybreak, toils all day, often till lono- after 

 dark, and if he is dairying, keeps it up for seven days a week. 

 There is no time for reading, none for thinking, none for 

 recreation, only one long struggle to achieve the goal of 

 an independent living. But in the struggle, even when 

 successful, there is too often almost as much lost as is 

 gained. Even years after success has been attained from 

 the material point of view, there is often still no flower 

 garden, no library in the house holding the treasures of 

 the ages, no work of art worthy of the name, and the onlv 

 music heard is a thing to be avoided. I have even known 

 such a one living in the old tumble- down slab humpy, with 

 all its crudities, inconveniences and ugliness, with no 

 garden, no attempt at bettering in any way the material 

 surroundings, and yet, in a well-finished building close 

 by, a beautiful up-to-date motor car. So common is this 

 loss among the farmers of much that is best and noblest 

 and highest in our lives, that the suggestion that a higher 

 standard is possible, is often received with incredulous 

 smiles. Such words as " bucolic " and " bumpkin " convev 

 meanings not at all complimentary to farmers. But historv 

 also teaches that from the farm have come great leaders 

 of thought, soldiers, scientists, even artists — -in a word, 

 the past declares that there is nothing in farming that 

 should lead to the atrophy of our higher nature. In the 

 present each one of us knows of families on the farm where 

 along with the ability to work hard and successfully, goes 

 a refinement and education, which is as genuine and thorough 

 as could be met with in any city home. The frequent 

 loss of many of those higher attributes which distinguish 

 man from the lower animals, in the terrible struggle for 

 his animal existence in a new land, or for that matter in 



