Fortunes for Farmers 



dishonesty, for it will not produce better crops, 

 and if he cheats his merchant or neighbour he is 

 a marked man, so that for him " Honesty is still 

 the best policy." The cityling repeats this as a 

 Sunday school maxim to his children, tongue in 

 cheek, for all around the wicked are prospering, 

 gamblers, cheats, adulterating merchants, unscru- 

 pulous financiers, ruthless managers, and lying 

 employees thrive, and the robbers of the poor 

 and needy live in detached mansions, whilst 

 honesty means a bare subsistence — if that. This 

 is why the atmosphere of the country is so sweet — 

 for honest industry still comes to the top — -an 

 ideal environment. 



The average farmer makes no fortune. Money 

 is the scarcest thing in his house, except the 

 doctor, but he doesn't miss it, for there is no need 

 of constant spending. He lives by the primitive 

 system of barter, consumes his own produce, 

 kills his own dinner, and finds his chief pleasures 

 without cost, so that if his balance sheet shows 

 little cash profit, why should he care? He has all 

 that money can buy, worth having, and much 

 that it can never purchase. 



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