MY EXCUSE 7 
recurring seed-time and harvest, which even the 
most thoughtless cannot interrupt. 
The waking dream of my life had been to 
own and to work land; to own it free of debt, 
and to work it with the same intelligence that 
has made me successful in my profession. Brains 
always seemed to me as necessary to success in 
farming as in law, or in medicine, or in business. 
I always felt that mind should control events in 
agriculture as in commercial life; that listlessness, 
carelessness, lack of thrift and energy, and waste, 
were the factors most potent in keeping the farmer 
poor and unreasonably harassed by the obligations 
of life. The men who cultivate the soil create 
incalculable wealth ; by rights they should be the 
nation’s healthiest, happiest, most comfortable, and 
most independent citizens. Their lives should be 
long, free from care and distress, and no more 
strenuous than is wholesome. That this condition 
is not general is due to the fact that the average 
farmer puts muscle before mind and brawn before 
_ brains, and follows, with unthinking persistence, 
_ the crude and careless traditions of his forefathers. 
Conditions on the farm are gradually changing 
for the better. The agricultural colleges, the ex- 
_ periment stations, the lecture courses which are 
given all over the country, and the general diffu- 
_ sion of agricultural and horticultural knowledge, 
are introducing among farming communities a 
more intelligent and more liberal treatment of 
land. But these changes are so slow, and there 
