THE YOUNG FARMER 



The reason for this state of affairs is made 

 clear by the results of insurance statistics. 

 The period that a man may be expected to 

 live can be obtained by taking the difference 

 between his present age and 90 and dividing 

 the remainder by two. Thus, a young man 

 who is 20 may reasonably expect to live 35 

 years, or until he is 55 years old. A man at 

 50, however, still has an expectation of life 

 of 20 years, and the man of 70 of 10 years. 



A farmer of 50 will usually have one or 

 more sons ready to go to farming if they 

 ever expect to engage in farming. But, as 

 has been shown, a man of 50 has a reason- 

 able expectation of 20 more years of life and 

 cannot turn over the farm to his son, com- 

 pletely, without destroying his own oppor- 

 tunity for earning a livelihood. As things 

 are usually arranged, therefore, there is no 

 place on the average farm for the son, except 

 as a hired hand, which is not desired per- 

 manently by either father or son. 



Frequently the father fails to appreciate 

 the earning power of his son, and, what is 

 more important, that the boy has grown 

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