A LITTLE LAND 43 



AND A LIVING 



that can be furnished by the agricultural and 

 stock-raising interests. There is not the slight- 

 est doubt that farm land will ultimately become 

 the most valuable asset of our country. Benja- 

 min Franklin said a century ago: ' This coun- 

 try is fond of manufactories beyond their real 

 value; for the true source of wealth is hus- 

 bandry." Franklin was possibly wrong in his 

 deprecation of factories in his day, for manu- 

 facturing has proved to be a prime factor in the 

 present greatness of the United States. But 

 he really spoke with the tongue of a prophet, 

 for this is the time when the words of America's 

 greatest philosopher on agriculture are pregnant 

 with meaning and force. And this is likewise 

 the time when this great manufacturing country 

 should awaken to the terse and intensely direct 

 sentence of Gibbon: "Agriculture is the foun- 

 dation of manufactures." 



AGRICULTCBE'S GOLDEN AGE. 



Those very manufactories have made possible 

 the Golden Age of farming, which has now be- 

 gun. No more remarkable inventions have been 



