THE IRRIGATION AGE. 87 



farmers on such rich soil with such a load of mortgages? Most of 

 them were old ones and any man who was in California during the 

 great boom can tell where much of the borrowed money went. 



On the other hand, in states like Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin, 

 where they never have had any booms, except in a few towns witb> 

 with which the farmers did not meddle, the farmers have felt the late- 

 hard times less than any other class. All have suffered some, but the 

 farmers less than any that is, farmers who farm, as most of them do 

 there, in the old style with mixed industries and farming for a living 

 first and money afterward. 



The farmer often thinks he is injured because he cannot put on 

 some of the style of the city. He little thinks that he is lucky in being: 

 free from it. To command his respect when he comes in town to con- 

 sult his lawyer, his lawyer has to spend a hundred dollars a year or 

 more for white linen and starching, etc., and still more for good 

 clothes. But that farmer can come in to consult that lawyer in old 

 overalls and a flannel shirt and be as good as any other client. 



I may be a poor judge because, from my earliest days, I hated the 

 town and loved the country. I was raised on the edge of town among 

 the farms in New Jersey and as soon as school was out skipped for 

 the woods and fields. I have spent about half my life in the country, 

 and for nearly ten years have lived sixty miles from even the smallest 

 village. Few have had my opportunities for knowing how people live 

 in both town and country, how they make their money and for what 

 they have to spend it, for there are very few equally at home in both 

 town and country. Within -my observations, the average farmer is 

 far ahead of the average city man in everything that goes to make life 

 comfortable and pleasant. He can not make the money made by a 

 very few in the city for there is no such thing as great wealth from 

 farming. But on the other hand, there is no such thing as the great 

 poverty oi the city. Though the farmer cannot make the lofty flight 

 above the average that some men of great foresight and diligence,, 

 and often luck, can make in the city, he cannot drop much below it 

 except through ill health or some misfortune that would set him much 

 farther behind if he ran the race of life in the cily. Many a farmer 

 can rise a little above, and some drop a little below the average, but 

 none are very far below it. In the city the number of those who arc 

 far below it is vastly greater than in the country. 



Quite as great a mistake is it to suppose that those who are far 

 above the average are to be envied. The rich are the most unhappy 

 of mortals. Their troubles are far more intense and far greater in 

 number than can be conceived by those who are content with a plain 

 living. Should the farmer grieve because he cannot try it for him- 

 self? He has no more reason to grieve than I have. The world says 

 to me "If you will spend so much time in hunting and fishing, so much. 



