CHAPTER XIX. 

 FARMING AS A PROFESSION 



AGRICULTURE is an industrial pursuit in which a 

 man of honour may still engage with self-respect 

 perhaps there are others. Like science and poetry, 

 it deals in no trade secrets ; at least, there is no 

 need. It does not require the gain of one by the 

 loss of another, as happens so commonly in com- 

 merce. Its gains are primarily a matter between 

 the man and the soil, and though some " rob the 

 soil," it is better than robbing the neighbour. 

 Besides, the robbed soil always avenges the crime, 

 which cannot be said of the Stock Exchange. It 

 keeps a man in touch with Nature, which helps 

 to keep him morally clean ; and in so far as it 

 implies a conflict, the conflict is between man and 

 his enemies in Nature rather than between man 

 and man. Its essential motive always is to 

 increase production, not to grasp the largest 

 possible amount of what is produced ; and though 

 the maximum may not often transform clogs and a 

 cottage into silks and a mansion in seven years, the 

 sane minimum is safer than in any other pursuit, 



