380 THE FAT OF THE LAND 



but they are not; they are only handled and 

 manipulated. Stop the work of the farmer from 

 April to October of any year, and Wall Street 

 would be a howling wilderness. The Street 

 makes it easier to exchange a dozen eggs for 

 three spools of silk, or a pound of butter for a 

 hat pin, but that's all ; it never created half the 

 intrinsic value of twelve eggs or sixteen ounces 

 of butter. It's only the farmer who is a wealth 

 producer, and it's high time that he should be 

 recognized as such. He's the husbandman of all 

 life ; without him the world would be depopu- 

 lated in three years. You don't half appreciate 

 the profession which your Dad has taken up in 

 his old age." 



" That sounds all right, but I don't think the 

 farmer would recognize himself from that de- 

 scription. He doesn't live up to his possibili- 

 ties, does he ? " 



Mighty few people do. A farmer may be 

 what he chooses to be. He's under no greater 

 limitations than a business or a professional 

 man. If he be content to use his muscle 

 blindly, he will probably fall under his own 

 harrow. So, too, would the merchant or the 

 lawyer who failed to use his intelligence in his 

 business. The farmer who cultivates his mind 

 as well as his land, uses his pencil as often as his 

 plough, and mixes brains with brawn, will not 

 fall under his own harrow or any other man's. 

 He will never be the drudge of soil or of season. 



