Farming and Business. 31 



tage. All this is proved by the fact that very many 

 of our best farmers are men who were not brought 

 up on the farm, or who, at least, soon left it for 

 other business. Good business men nearly always 

 make a success of farming. They come into the 

 business with trained minds, skilled judgment, and 

 especially without too much stereotyped knowledge, 

 and, therefore, without prejudice. They are willing 

 to learn, and they quickly assimilate new ideas. It 

 sometimes seems as if the farmers of the future are 

 to come largely from other occupations, where men 

 are free from the bonds of tradition. 



In other words, there are two distinct lines of 

 effort in farming : one is farming proper, or the 

 growing of crops; and the other is business method, 

 which is a matter of executive management. One 

 difficulty with agriculture at the present time is the 

 fact that every farmer is his own business manager, 

 and it is probably true that less than one -fourth of 

 the men, taking them as they run, are competent to 

 manage a business. When the boys leave the farm 

 for the city, they fall under the management of the 

 proprietor of an industry or a business, and after a 

 time all those individuals who show special aptitude 

 for executive business rise to their opportunities, and 

 themselves become managers and proprietors. In the 

 increasing complication and complexities of the future, 

 those farmers who are not good executive business 

 men will be obliged to give their attention solely to 

 those enterprises to which they are best adapted; so 

 that there must gradually come to be a separation be- 



