THE BORN-ON-THE-FARM MYTH 33 



one goes at a plump age to till the soil, he must carry 

 with him the knowledge which science has taught and 

 the implements which the artizan has devised. The 

 old methods of farming to which he was accustomed 

 when a boy are as obsolete as the old implements of 

 agriculture. I remember well when the first machine 

 for cutting hay came into the community where I lived, 

 and a few years after when the first machine for reap- 

 ing wheat was introduced. I have seen myself and my 

 father and his helpers go into the field with cradles. I 

 remember his telling me what a wonderful thing the 

 cradle was as compared with the sickle of his boyhood 

 days. " The cradle," he says, " has revolutionized the 

 wheat industry and made it possible." So did the 

 sickle in its time. And yet, what would you think of 

 the farmer of to-day who, in starting out in his new 

 career, would buy a cradle for his wheat cutting instead 

 of a reaper and binder, or engine and thrasher, or would 

 cut clover with a scythe instead of a mower ? Improved 

 machinery has made extensive farming economical, but 

 it is just as easy to harvest a field of wheat that yields 

 thirty bushels per acre with the reaper and binder as it 

 is to harvest one that yields thirteen, and the economy 

 of the larger yield is readily appreciated. 



It is a good heritage to have been born upon a farm, 

 but the farming of our boyhood days is a thing of the 

 past in so far as economy and fruitful farming are con- 

 cerned. This is the day of the food specialist. It is 

 not always the cheapest food that is the most economi- 

 cal. The idea that a field can be fed solely from its 

 own resources is preposterous. At least a part of the 

 crop must be taken off every year, and the resources of 

 the field are diminished to that extent. 



To-day the farmer who farms without the economy of 



