168 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



THE FARM AND FARMER THE BASIS OF NATIONAL 

 STRENGTH. 



BY PROP. WM. H. BREWER, PROFESSOR OF AGRICULTURE IN TALE UNIVERSITY, 

 NEW HAVEN, CONN. 



The farm and the farmer are the basis of national streno;th. 

 This is true of all countries, and is especially and emphati- 

 cally true of this. National strength implies several things, — 

 streno;th in material resources, streno;th in men and strens^th 

 in intelligent patriotism. There are many factors in the 

 problem of what constitutes national strength, — some are 

 material, some intellectual, some moral and religious ; and 

 all these factors are related to agriculture as they are to no 

 other one vocation or industry. 



Our modern civilization is very complicated. It implies 

 that there is and must be in any prosperous community a 

 variety of vocations in which men busy themselves, a variety 

 of industries in which capital is invested, and a variety of 

 things produced. Inasmuch as this variety of vocation and 

 investment is essential to a high state of civilization, there 

 is one point of view from which we may say of several in- 

 dustries that each are necessary to a nation's strength. But 

 there is another point of view, from which we see that these 

 different industries have very unequal values, and that some 

 of them are much more important than others as Victors of 

 national strength. But in every aspect and lying at the 

 foundation of all the others, and upon which the prosperity 

 and stability of all the others must depend, is the agriculture 

 of the country. This is partly because of the nature of the 

 capital employed in this industry, but more because of the 

 nature of the product. 



The subject has many sides and may be viewed from a 

 groat many stand-points, but from each and all of them the 

 same conclusions must be reached. In the short hour 

 assigned me now, we can only consider in a very general 

 way some of the many elements which enter into this subject. 



The Food Question. 

 The most obvious and pressing necessity of mankind is 

 food, and the food of civilization is produced by the farmer. 

 This fact of itself places agriculture in diflerent relations to 



