26 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



Assumption of urban superiority. If we look at the matter 

 historically, however, we find that there have been times when 

 this distinction was a very real one. It is surprising how many 

 opprobrious terms there are, doubtless coined by city people, 

 which at one time meant merely "countryman." "Heathen," 

 "pagan," "boor," "villain," and even "peasant," as that word 

 is frequently used, all having originally about the same mean- 

 ing in different languages, are examples which show in what 

 poor esteem the countryman was held at one time or another by 

 his cousins from the city. But this low esteem has frequently 

 been merely the result of a failure on the part of those who get 

 their living out of other men to appreciate the men who get their 

 living out of the soil. 



This failure is sometimes due to a lack of appreciation of the 

 real virtues and the many excellent qualities of those who till 

 the soil. An ancient occupation, pursued by countless genera- 

 tions, accumulates a vast fund of wisdom and skill, much of 

 which escapes the pages of the written book, being transmitted 

 from father to son on the thin air of oral tradition or of living 

 example. Such an occupation is agriculture. Working in flint 

 has been called the oldest trade in the world, but tilling the soil 

 has first claim to that distinction, unless the word " trade " is to 

 be applied to special mechanical occupations only. In conse- 

 quence of its antiquity and its universality there has developed 

 a body of rural lore and technic, which has no counterpart 

 anywhere else, but which is entirely underestimated by, if not 

 absolutely unknown to, the urbanite. But because so much of 

 it is learned outside of schools, by the actual process of doing 

 rural work, father and son working together generation after 

 generation, it does not commonly go under the name of 

 "learning." Moreover, the marvelous technic of rural work is 

 acquired in such a commonplace way that we frequently regard 

 it as a matter of course, and do not appreciate that it is real 



