The “Line of Least Resistance 
Thanksgiving of the Elderly Farmer 
T hat “kid just out of college,” as lie styles him¬ 
self, on page 1065, is surely entertaining to an 
old timer. His B. A. does not seem to injure him 
much. That impressive title generally infects with 
the idea that working near nature is ignoble, and 
that watching a boss who passes the impositions 
handed him by his boss is the proper way to engage 
a life work. I shall always feel kindly towards 
Horace Greeley, who influenced me in the Tribune 
during the days i was grubbing, ditching and wading 
among small crops, on a new 40, to decide to be a 
good farmer. Of only average intelligence, with no 
start except the district school, no man has had more 
of earth’s best things, better friends, or done as he 
pleased more constantly. Also it is not given to 
many to reach more millions, to help them a little 
financially and inject 
some better thoughts. 
In addressing over 1,000 
sheepmen lately on 
“What’s the matter with 
wool?” to commit them 
so I could hit them for 
not supporting the cause, 
I made the assertion 
that I could take any 
road and travel in any 
direction for a few hun¬ 
dred miles, stop at 
every good farmhouse, 
and many in the towns, 
tell my name and bor¬ 
row $10. Then I said: 
“There are not five men 
in this audience who 
ever saw me until 1 
came on these grounds, 
so hold up your hand if 
you believe I am telling 
the truth.” All hands 
went up, and I re¬ 
marked : “If I asked 
you men and these I re¬ 
ferred to for 50 cenrs 
for the good of your 
sheep and mine, half of 
them would have pains 
under their vests." 
These States are full 
of old fellows, with their 
faults, who have had as 
much fun as the writer 
in different lines, and 
the young man who 
starts now has a better 
chance. If he has an 
education, all well, and 
if not he can get it. If 
he keeps the Command¬ 
ments most of the time, 
studies to do his work 
well and more of it, 
reads good literature in 
the evenings or asso¬ 
ciates with good folks, 
he can become intelli¬ 
gent and rich. More 
than that, he can be the 
junior partner with 
Providence in growing 
plants and animals, and 
can “eat at the first 
table,” as David Gray¬ 
son puts it He can feel 
like a king and stand 
with perfect confidence 
before the greatest in 
the professions and finance. He can live comfort¬ 
ably in his own house and be buried from there by 
real friends. 
The apples on trees a man has planted, the grow¬ 
ing crops of grass and grain he has made, and the 
nice animals he has bred and fed will almost make 
an idolater of him worshipping them. Under me 
now, in the cellar, are golden Grimes, Bumbo and 
Nonesuch, packed with enticing flavors, and others 
that give more joy than all the realty, stocks, bonds 
and money than any city man on earth ever had 
from them. No city man can understand “Thou 
visitest the earth and watcrest it. The pastures are 
clothed with flocks, the valleys also are covered with 
corn. They -shout for joy, they also sing. Thou 
crownest the earth with thy goodness and all thy 
paths drop fatness.” r These are the farmer’s Thanks¬ 
giving thoughts. W. W. REYNOLDS. 
Ohio. 
And This from the Mature Farmer 
Yes, by all means tell V. A. to take the “path of 
least resistance” for him! Obviously he is dissatis- 
fitnl with the present conditions that exist in farm¬ 
ing—that’s the first essential to progress. Then he 
has an ideal of what he wants, he knows where he 
wants to go—that’s equally essential. Then he sus¬ 
pects that likely some of the trouble lies at the door 
of the farmers. I guess he is right, a lot of it 
lie is young, blessed with a college training, sees 
the trouble, sees part of the cause, has a vision of 
how things ought to be. Without doubt the path of 
least resistance, for him, is to go to farming and 
“Looking On the Happy Autumn Fields and Thinking of the Daps That Are No More ” 
start to realize his ideals for farming. For oppor¬ 
tunity is not gauged by the other man’s ideals, but 
our own: only tbe man with the vision can begin 
to realize it. and if V. A. would find his life satisfy¬ 
ing to himself, he must take the path plain to him, 
and lie will certainly get the reward. 
lie says: “Opportunity in organization work is 
boundless, but tbe 30-cent dollar of real production 
looks pretty small.” I assume bo means organiza¬ 
tion work amongst farmers, and he is right; it. is 
boundless, and he knows, as we all do. that the 30- 
cent dollar will not increase in size till we get into 
that organization with both feet and hands, prepared 
t > stick with it and make such a change that there 
will be an improvement. He lias the great thing that 
has always moved the world—a vision and a desire 
to realize it Those that have followed that ideal 
are the ones that history has written large upon its 
pages; those who have served their fellow men well, 
so well that their lives had just begun when they 
laid down their tasks for others to take up and carry 
to great ends, inspired by their lives of service. 
Whoever had a right to say that the hours some 
one somewhere works should be the standard for 
some one else? Or because some one gets $10,000 a 
year, is that necessarily what a man ought to get? 
Whatever has or whatever can determine a man's 
ability to serve his race but himself? It is for him 
to decide what are the essentials to do bis job, and 
then for him to get those conditions. 
The only dead man is the one that doesn’t see any 
problems or have any ambition to solve them if he 
sees them. Any man 
can easily fall into a job 
as others do for out¬ 
rageously large pay 
these days, but it re¬ 
quires a real man to get 
into the job that he 
thinks he is best adapted 
to fill and then get pay 
enough to enable him to 
keep on: maybe it will 
be a good thing for a 
while if he has no soft 
snap and is underpaid 
if the process develops 
his backbone rather than 
his bank account. Our 
renowned ancestors are 
remembered rather for 
their backbones than 
their bank accounts. No, 
I don’t underrate tbe 
value of a bank account, 
and this visionary talk 
concerns farming. 
I am 47 years old. or 
young — suit yourself. 
Years ago I graduated 
from one of our coun¬ 
try’s largest technical 
schools, and for six and 
one-hrtlf years worked 
in various positions for 
one of the largest elec¬ 
trical manufacturing 
companies in the United 
States. Then, a little 
later, through reading 
books and having a 
small house gardeu, I 
got the idea I would like 
to be a truck farmer, so 
I plunged and started 
in for myself. Well, of 
course T was going to 
play the game according 
to the books and make 
big money. The books 
talked $500 to $1,000 to 
the acre; I -was going to 
be scientific and make 
six stalks of celery grow 
where one ragweed grew 
before. Yes, I got the 
experience, sunk all my 
savings and was in 
debt thousands in a few 
years, and T didn't seem 
to make, much of a 
splash in the community 
either. But still I had 
to pay out. or. my friends would have been disap¬ 
pointed (and out of pocket). I liked the job, and I 
hated to admit I was licked. But because my friends 
Mere good and my faithful wife and I worked 10 to 
IS hours a day the year around and lived in a shack 
and didn’t have modern conveniences aud didn’t buy 
everything we wanted, we weathered the storm, and 
here we are. We have been in the business over 10 
years—didn't know anything about farming when we 
started, and don’t know much now; still learning, 
aud everlastingly fighting for an increase iu that 
30-cent dollar. This has been the best year we have 
ever had, and we are not through yet, but my wife 
and I know that had we stuck to our original busi¬ 
nesses. l to electrical engineering and she to the 
