73 CHAPTERS IN RURAL PROGRESS 



Agriculture has perhaps been slow to feel the 

 current of the new wine as it flows from the 

 wine press of fast-growing industrial and social 

 need. But the least hopeful of us can, I am 

 sure, already see signs of a vast awakening. 

 The farm, as well as the pulpit, the bar, the 

 schoolroom, the shop, the counting-room, is 

 breathing in the new idea that knowledge and 

 training can be made of use to every man. 



This awakening is due not merely to the de- 

 sire of agriculturists to be in fashion, nor to the 

 efforts of agricultural pedagogues, but to a real 

 need. It is common knowledge that in America 

 we have not farmed, but have mined the soil. 

 We have "skimmed the cream" of fertility, and 

 passed on to conquer new areas of virgin soil. 

 This pioneer farming has required hard work, 

 enterprise, courage, and all the noble traits of 

 character that have made our American pio- 

 neers famous and that have within a century 

 subdued a wilderness to civilization. But the 

 farmer of today faces a new situation. The 

 fertile lands are fairly well occupied. The old 

 lands are depleted. These old lands must be 

 handled skilfully if they are to produce profit- 

 ably. They must be used because there is little 

 else to use, and because they are near the best 



