THE YOUNG FARMER 



as possible, the influence of natural causes. 

 Certain kinds of farming are less dependent 

 upon natural causes than others. Wisdom 

 and foresight can do much to avoid, in all 

 farming, untoward influences. The clever 

 farmer seldom complains about the weather. 

 Farm machinery has made unnecessary, 

 and hence unprofitable, some of the labor at 

 which children were formerly employed. 

 In the not distant past many, perhaps most 

 farmers, owed their prosperity in large 

 measure to the labor of their children. A 

 large family, especially of boys, was a valua- 

 ble asset. Even a generation ago conditions 

 were not far different, and two generations 

 ago were quite the same as those described 

 by Homer: 



"Another field rose high with waving grain: 



With bended sickles stand the reaper train: 



Here, stretch'd in ranks, the level'd swaths are found ; 



Sheaves heaped on sheaves here thicken up the ground. 



With sweeping stroke the mowers strow the lands ; 



The gath'rers follow, and collect in bands : 



And last the children, in whose arms are borne 



(Too short to gripe them) the brown sheaves of corn. 



2O6 



