FARMING AS AN OCCUPATION FOR CITY-BRED MEN. 



By W. J. SPILLMAN, 



Agriculturist in Charge of Office of Farm Management, 

 Bureau of Plant Industry. 



SUCCESS IN MERCANTILE, MANUFACTURING, OR TRANSPORTATION ENTER- 

 PRISES. 



A study of the history of those men who direct the affairs of large 

 mercantile, manufacturing, and transportation enterprises usually 

 reveals a steady progress from a beginning as a low-salaried em- 

 ployee step by step to positions of greater responsibility, and finally 

 to the position of directing head of the enterprise. The men who 

 thus gradually work themselves up from lower positions are en- 

 dowed with the spirit of work. In nearly all industries of the classes 

 mentioned the hours of work are so limited that even the most humble 

 employee has some time which he can devote either to recreation or to 

 study. The men who go to the top in business affairs are usually those 

 who do not know what recreation means, but spend their spare time 

 in intelligent preparation for greater usefulness to their employers. 

 Many instances might be cited where men who are now directing 

 large enterprises began at a low salary in a position requiring hard 

 work. The humblest employee in such lines of business has the oppor- 

 tunity, if he has the ability, to rise to a high position. 



CONDITIONS AFFECTING FARMERS. 



In farming it is different. There are practically only three 

 grades in this business, namely, the farm laborer, the tenant, and 

 the proprietor. While it is possible for the laborer to become a 

 tenant, and then by careful study and great frugality ultimately to 

 become an independent proprietor, or even to become a proprietor 

 directly, in a small way, from his savings as a farm laborer, 

 generally speaking there is not the opportunity in farming for the 

 laborer to pass by gradual steps to a position of importance in 

 the industry, because we do not ordinarily find series of positions, 

 with graduated salaries, which form the stepping stones for the am- 

 bitious and able young man. In the first place, on the average farm 

 there is little or no profit; that is, if we count out wages for the 



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