68 CHAPTERS IN RURAL PROGRESS 



occupation in its wider phases leads him into 

 direct contact with political economy, social 

 movements, and problems of government. The 

 questions confronting him as a farmer relate 

 themselves to the leading realms of human 

 knowledge and experience. I speak of course 

 of the progressive farmer, who makes the best 

 use of his opportunities. He can hardly hope 

 to become immensely wealthy, but he can main- 

 tain that modest standard of living that usually 

 is the lot of our most useful and cultured people 

 and that ministers as a rule most fully to the 

 ideal family life. The truly modern farmer can- 

 not help growing. 



There is much hard work on the farm. Yet 

 on the whole there is fully as much leisure as in 

 most other occupations. There is time to read, 

 and books are today so easily accessible that 

 living in the country is no bar to the bookshelf. 

 Better than time to read is time to think. The 

 farmer has always been a man who pondered 

 things in his heart. He has had a chance to 

 meditate. No culture is sound except it has 

 been bought by much thinking; all else is veneer. 

 Farm life gives in good measure this time to 

 think. But it is in nature that the farmer finds 

 or may find his most fertile field for culture. 



