THE BORN-ON-THE-FARM MYTH 31 



time farmer resuming his place on the farm are de- 

 cidedly bad. The doctrine of probabilities does not 

 work out in his favor. He is more likely to fail than to 

 succeed. He is, however, certain to fail if he relies 

 upon the old methods. His only hope is in the reason- 

 able application of the facts which the science of farm- 

 ing has developed. These fundamental facts were 

 never taught to the boy upon the farm of a quarter of 

 a century or a half century ago. What is the funda- 

 mental fact of successful agriculture? It is this: the 

 soil is not dead, inert matter; it is a living organism, 

 it demands care and protection, above all it asks for 

 food, it has its idiosyncrasies. The successful farmer is 

 necessarily a psychologist. He studies the mind of the 

 soil. No one can sit down and describe just what a 

 field is like. The fields are fitful as the maidens. 

 They may never be in the same mood two years follow- 

 ing. They will fancy this or that, as the passion may 

 seize them, but one thing they never forget and that is 

 to eat It may be kainite to-day, it is likely to be fish 

 scrap to-morrow, but the field "wants what it wants 

 when it wants it." 



Science shows the way. The farmer, however, can- 

 not be made by science alone. He must have the sense 

 of the real farmer. As Whitcomb Eiley puts it, he 

 must be able to divine the " feel in the air." 



From another point of view the early experience on 

 the farm is likely to be a handicap. As a rule it is 

 not always agreeable. The life of the old-fashioned 

 farmer's boy is a hard one. The man will perhaps 

 retain the feeling of the boy, that labor is a curse, es- 

 pecially farm labor. Above all things the intending 

 fanner of mature years must forget that labor ever 

 was a curse. He must feel that it is an opportunity 



