XI 



IS THE SMALL FARMER TO DISAPPEAR? 



AS I have studied from time to time the practical 

 problems which present themselves to the farmer 

 above fifty, visions of disaster to the small farmer have 

 presented themselves. It is a question with me whether 

 the small farmer, I mean by that the man with, say, 

 one hundred or one hundred and fifty acres of land, 

 is going to be able to persist. In other words, I see 

 the indications of the establishment in the United 

 States, as it grows older, of certain class distinctions, 

 that have grown up, in so far as I know, in all the old 

 countries of the world. These signs may be deceptive, 

 but they are at least alarming. 



The vision which is now before me is that of a pro- 

 prietary class, and practically a peasant class. I have 

 already described the farm laborer of Virginia, belong- 

 ing, as he does, to a class which is apparently without 

 ambition. The young man as he graduates to his ma- 

 jority passes at once to the position of a farm laborer, 

 and most surprisingly with no ambition to be anything 

 else. When I offered to my head farmer a proposition 

 to become interested in the output of the land, in other 

 words, to begin as a tenant, his answer to me was char- 

 acteristic. He said, " I have all I can eat and wear, 

 why should I want more ? " 



THE IX)E1> OF THE MANOR. 



If farm labor is to become hereditary, it cannot fail 



of producing a distinct type of citizen, which in all re- 



78 



