200 CHAPTERS IN RURAL PROGRESS 



only potatoes but culture, not only wheat but 

 effective manhood. 



But we may carry the point a step farther. 

 The individual farmer is the starting-point and 

 the end of agriculture, it is true. But the lone 

 farmer is an anomaly, either as a cause or as a 

 product, as the lone man is everywhere. As an 

 effective cause we must have co-operating indi- 

 viduals, and as an end we desire an improved 

 community and a higher-grade class of farmers. 



The farm question then is a social question. 

 Valuable as are the contributions of science to 

 the problems of soil and plant and animal, the 

 ultimate contribution comes from the develop- 

 ment of improved men. So the real end is not 

 merely to utilize each acre to its utmost, nor to 

 provide cheap food for the people who do not 

 farm, nor yet to render agriculture industrially 

 strong. The gravest and most far-reaching 

 consideration is the social and patriotic one of 

 endeavoring to develop and maintain an agricul- 

 tural class which represents the very best type 

 of American manhood and womanhood, to 

 make the farm home the ideal home, to bring 

 agriculture to such a state that the business 

 will always attract the keen and the strong 

 who at the same time care more for home and 



