THE NEW FARMER 65 



the tribe of mossbacks destined to increase and 

 become a caste of permanent tenants or peasants ? 

 Is the future American farmer to be the typical 

 new farmer of the present, or are we traveling 

 toward a social condition in which the tillers 

 of the soil will be underlings ? Is there coming a 

 time when the "man with the hoe" will be the 

 true picture of the American farmer, with a low 

 standard of living, without ideals, without a 

 chance for progress ? 



We must eliminate the mossback. It is to 

 be done largely by education and by co-opera- 

 tion. There must be a campaign for rural 

 progress. There must be a union of the 

 country school teacher, of the agricultural col- 

 lege professor, of the rural pastor, of the country 

 editor, with the farmers themselves, for the pro- 

 duction of an increased crop of new farmers. 

 Anything that makes farm life more worth 

 living, anything that banishes rural isolation, 

 anything that dignifies the business of farming 

 and makes it more prosperous, anything that 

 broadens the farmer's horizon, anything that 

 gives him a greater grasp of the rural movement, 

 anything that makes him a better citizen, a 

 better business man, or a better man, means the 

 passing of the mossback. 



