CHAPTER IV 



THE NEW FARMER 



All farmers may be divided into three classes. 

 There is the "old" farmer, there is the "new" 

 farmer, and there is the "mossback." The old 

 farmer represents the ancient regime. The new 

 farmer is the modern business agriculturist. 

 The mossback is a mediaeval survival. The old 

 farmer was in his day a new farmer; he was 

 "up with the times," as the times then were. 

 The new farmer is merely the worthy son of a 

 noble sire; he is the modern embodiment of the 

 old farmer's progressiveness. The mossback is 

 the man who tries to use the old methods under 

 the new conditions; he is not "up" with the 

 present times, but "back" with the old times. 

 Though he lives and moves in the present, he 

 really has his being in the past. 



The old farmer is the man who conquered the 

 American continent. His axe struck the crown 

 from the monarchs of the wood, and the fertile 

 farms of Ohio are the kingdom he created. He 

 broke the sod of the rich prairies, and the tassel- 

 ing cornfields of Iowa tell the story of his deeds. 



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