86 The Condition of the Western -Farmer. [364 



nature not clearly personal (for these latter causes have been 

 excluded from our consideration), but it also includes the 

 many who are still struggling for success, though badly 

 embarrassed by debt. In brief, it comprises all those who have 

 to a greater or less extent fallen short of the measure of suc- 

 cess which their efforts seemed to deserve. Nor should it be 

 forgotten that to the men classed as successful the same con- 

 ditions have applied as to the unsuccessful, though not with 

 equal results ; for the successful ones are those whose energy 

 or business ability or external advantages have been so great 

 as to enable them to overcome in some degree, at least, all 

 the unfavorable influences. 



And now let us see what this measure of success is which 

 the more successful in the township have attained. The 

 largest landowner among them has 480 acres of land, while 

 only four or five, all told, own over 240 acres apiece. Of 

 those who have more than one quarter section of land, the 

 great majority have had some exceptional advantage, such 

 as a capital greater than the average, when they first came to 

 the country, or external help of some kind, as land or money 

 received by inheritance, or they have been men of excep- 

 tional thrift. In no case can the improvements be called 

 more than comfortable, and it is rare to find an exception- 

 ally good house without noticing that the outbuildings have 

 to some extent been sacrificed to it, or vice versa. In few 

 cases will the income from his farm support the owner after 

 he has retired from active life. To the. writer it seems that 

 the condition of the successful farmers more strongly indi- 

 cates the disadvantages under which they have labored than 

 the condition of the more or less unsuccessful ones. For 

 here we see good business men who have carefully labored 

 for many years, and who come now toward the close 

 of their active careers, feeling fortunate if their farms are 

 unencumbered and their property sufficient to support them 

 in their old age, while they live with their descendants who 

 have taken their places in the active operations of agricul- 

 ture. It is true these men have had little inherited wealth 



