CHALLENGE OF NEW ,DAY 27 



THE CHALLENGE TO THE FARMER 



Do these great ideals call to the men who are on 

 the land? If they do, how may they be interpreted in 

 terms of the work and life of the people who farm? 

 This interpretation makes a challenge to the mind and 

 heart of every farmer. What is the challenge? 



1. That the farmer's duty is to help feed and clothe 

 the world. He is designated by society as the steward 

 of the soil. He is the keeper of the land the most 

 precious material resource of humanity. He owns 

 or controls the land on terms which society as a whole 

 rightfully prescribes. He has no right to use the land 

 merely for his own immediate benefit. He has no right 

 to deplete its fertility; the land will be needed, sorely 

 needed, ages after he has lived out his brief span. He 

 did not put into the soil its nitrogen, nor its potash, 

 nor its phosphoric acid. He does not make the rain 

 the former and the latter rain, nor the sunshine and 

 heat of summer, nor the busy bacteria which work 

 among the grains of soil. He may plant, but God 

 giveth the increase. He is merely God's tool, His 

 human instrument, in feeding a hungry world. The 

 farmer has a solemn, unescapable obligation to his 

 fellow men to use every acre under his control to 

 its fullest safe capacity for producing food for those 

 who cannot produce it for themselves. 



2. That the farming group, like other groups, shall 

 have a fair reward for its labor. The world has not 

 as yet been able to decide what forms the basis for a 

 " fair " reward. Heretofore reward has been largely 

 a matter of taking what toll one can get as the goods 

 or service pass through the hopper of personal or cor- 

 porate control. Competition in efficiency, demand and 



