186 WHAT I KNOW OF FARMING. 



the dirty professional work of a rascal intent on 

 cheating his neighbor out of his righteous dues. 

 The young doctor may be likewise incited to resort 

 to a quackery he despises in order to secure instant 

 bread ; the unknown author is often impelled to 

 write what will sell rather than what the public ought 

 to buy ; but the young farmer, acting as a farmer, 

 must realize that his success depends upon his abso- 

 lute verity and integrity. He deals directly with 

 Nature, which never was and never will be cheated. 

 He has no temptation to sow beach sand for plaster, 

 dock-seed for clover, or stoop to any trick or juggle 

 whatever. " Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he 

 also reap," while true, in the long run, of all men, is 

 instantly and palpably true as to him. When he, 

 having grown his crop, shall attempt to sell it in 

 other words, when he ceases to be a farmer and be- 

 comes a trader he may possibly be tempted into 

 one of the many devious ways of rascality ; but, so 

 long as he is acting simply as a farmer, he can hardly 

 be lured from the broad, straight highway of integrity 

 and righteousness. 



III. The farmer's calling seems to me that most 

 conducive to thorough manliness of character. No- 

 body expects him to cringe, or smirk, or curry favor, 

 in order to sell his produce. No merchant refuses to 

 buy it because his politics are detested or his reli- 

 gious opinions heterodox. He may be a Mormon, a 

 Rebel, a Millerite, or a Communist, yet his Grain or 

 his Pork will sell for exactly what it is worth not a 



