64 CHAPTERS IN RURAL PROGRESS 



rant, or perhaps merely because he is conserva- 

 tive, takes little interest in these things. About 

 one farmer in ten belongs to some sort of farmers' 

 association. Thousands of farmers do not take 

 an agricultural paper, and perhaps millions of 

 them have not read an agricultural book. Right 

 here comes in another fact. Every " new " farmer 

 when full grown competes with every mossback. 

 The educated farmer makes it still harder for 

 the ignorant farmer to progress. 



The future of the American farmer is one of 

 the most pregnant social problems with which 

 we have to deal. There is indeed an issue in- 

 volved in the success of the new farmer that is 

 still more fundamental than any yet mentioned. 

 The old farmer had a social standing that made 

 him essentially a middle-class man. He was a 

 landholder, he was independent, he was success- 

 ful. He was the typical American citizen. The 

 old farmer was father to the best blood of 

 America. His sons and his sons' sons have 

 answered to the roll call of our country's war- 

 riors, statesmen, writers, captains of industry. 



Can the new farmer maintain the same relative 

 social status? And if he can, is he to be an 

 aristocrat, a landlord, a captain of industry, 

 and to bear rule over the mossback? And is 



