Deep Furrows | Page 2

enlargements and the up-to-date kodak. The automobile has
widened the circle of the Farmer's neighbors and friends, while the
telephone has wiped distance from the map.
In the modern farm kitchen hot and cold water gushes from bright
nickel taps into a clean white enamel sink, thanks to the pneumatic
water supply system. The house and other farm buildings are lighted by
electricity and perhaps the little farm power plant manages to operate
some machinery--to drive the washing machine, the cream separator,
the churn and the fodder-cutter or tanning-mill. There is also a little
blacksmith shop and a carpenter shop where repairs can be attended to
without delay. True, all these desirable conveniences may not be
possessed generally as yet; but the Farmer has seen them working on
the model farmstead exhibited by the Government at the Big Fair or in
the Farm Mechanics car of the Better Farming Special Trains that have

toured the country, and he dreams about them.
More scientific methods of agriculture have been adopted. The Farmer
has learned what may be accomplished by crop rotations and new
methods of cultivation. He has learned to analyze the soil and grow
upon his land those crops for which it is best suited. If he keeps a dairy
herd he tests each cow and knows exactly how her yield is progressing
so that it is impossible for her to "beat her board bill." No longer is it
even considered good form to chop the head off the old rooster; the
Farmer sticks him scientifically, painlessly, instantaneously dressing
him for market in the manner that commands the highest price. So with
the butter, the eggs and all the rest of the farm products.
Do you wonder that the great evolution of farming methods should lead
to advanced thought upon the issues of the day? In the living room the
Family Bible remains in its old place of honor, perhaps with the
crocheted mat still doing duty; but it is not now almost the only book in
the house. There is likely to be a sectional bookcase, filled with solid
volumes on all manner of practical and economic subjects--these as
well as the best literature, the latest magazines and two or three current
newspapers.
Yes, a whole flock of tin roosters have rusted away on top of the barn
since the Farmer first began to consider himself the Rag Doll of
Commerce and to seek adjustments. It is the privilege of rag dolls to
survive a lot of abuse; long after wax has melted and sawdust run the
faithful things are still on hand. And along about crop time the Farmer
finds himself attracting a little attention.
That is because this business of backbone farming is the backbone of
Business In General. As long as money is circulating freely Business In
General, being merely an exchange in values, wears a clean shirt and
the latest cravat. But let some foreign substance clog the trade channels
and at once everything tightens up and squeezes everybody.
Day by day the great mass of the toilers in the cities go to work without
attempting to understand the fluctuations of supply and demand. They
are but cogs on the rim, dependent for their little revolutions upon the

power which drives the machinery. That power being Money Value,
any wastage must be replaced by the creation of new wealth. So men
turn to the soil for salvation--to the greatest manufacturing concern in
the world, Nature Unlimited. This is the plant of which the Farmer is
General Manager.
On state occasions, therefore, it has been the custom in the past to call
him "the backbone of his country"--its "bone and sinew." Without him,
as it were, the Commercial Fabric could not sit up in its High Chair and
eat its bread and milk. Such fine speeches have been applauded loudly
in the cities, too frequently without due thought--without it occurring to
anyone, apparently, that perhaps the Farmer might prefer to be looked
upon rather as an ordinary hard-working human being, entitled as such
to "a square deal."
But all these years times have been changing. Gradually Agriculture
has been assuming its proper place in the scheme of things. It is
recognized now that successful farming is a business--a profession, if
you like--requiring lifelong study, foresight, common sense, close
application; that it carries with it all the satisfaction of honest work well
done, all the dignity of practical learning, all the comforts of modern
invention, all the wider benefits of clean living and right thinking in
God's sunny places.
And with his increasing self-respect the New Farmer is learning to
command his rights, not merely to ask and accept what crumbs may fall.
He is learning that these are the days of Organization, of Co-Operation
among units for the