ORGANIZATION OF THE FARM 



and be living like kings eating your bread and meat and 

 good apples and fresh butter and eggs and milk. The other 

 fellow can only keep his just a little while, until you hear 

 the prices of his wares a cracking. The farmer is a trust 

 breaker, if he only knows it. I have little faith in legis- 

 latures and courts and magazine writers and orators, as 

 trust breakers. But the farmer with the right idea, as I 

 have been trying to illustrate, can fortify himself in his 

 farm home for a much longer siege than the manufacturer 

 or the railroad manager can put up against him. And the 

 beauty of it all is, the farmer can be happy all the same, 

 and all the time. 



That too many farmers neglect to provide their 

 families with the variety and abundance of fruits 

 and vegetables which they might and should pro- 

 duce primarily for home use, and that they also 

 generally fail to appreciate the possibility of cre- 

 ating for themselves beautiful surroundings by 

 planting flowers and shrubs and trees, is frankly 

 admitted. This condition of affairs is to be re- 

 gretted, and should be remedied. One of the 

 greatest of economists, John Stuart Mill, has 

 said : " Solitude in the presence of natural beauty 

 and grandeur is the cradle of thoughts and aspiral- 

 tions which are not only good for the individual, 

 but which society could ill do without." 1 We 

 need more of the "thoughts and aspirations" such 

 as the "natural beauty and grandeur" of the ideal 

 country home may inspire, and it is certainly to 

 be hoped that the American farmer will avail 

 himself of his natural opportunities and surround 



1 Principles of Political Economy, Book IV, Chapter VI, 2. 



45 



