36 The Farmstead 



The farmer, of necessity, goes to the city or 

 village once each week for supplies which cannot 

 well be produced on the farm. He should re- 

 turn, if possible, with more money than he had 

 when he left home. It is not the big mortgage 

 which was given for part of the purchase price 

 of the farm which should make him unhappy, 

 but the steadily increasing little charges accumu- 

 lating on the tradesmen's ledgei's until this 

 " honest " farmer dreads to meet a score of his 

 town acquaintances. 



The farmer who, from his well-painted cov- 

 ered democrat wagon, sells the product of his 

 skill and labor looks to me quite as dignified as 

 does the merchant who sells nails and codfish, 

 turpentine and bobbins, patent medicines and 

 jews '-harps, none of which represents his own 

 skill or labor. 



Farming will never be carried on in America 

 by trusts or syndicates. A combine can run 

 fifty nail factories or breweries, but not fifty 

 farms, at a profit, because farming is too diffi- 

 cult, requires too close supervision and frequent 

 change of details and combinations, and new 

 plans to meet the ever-changing conditions of 

 climate and soil. The conditions which sur- 

 round agriculture in America put a quietus for- 

 ever on ''bonanza farming," and tend to the 

 rearing of ideal homes and the accumulation of 



