The Story of the Soil | Page 9

had led Lincoln to see the
problems and the possibilities of the farm life in a light that was wholly
new.
"Surely those are noble thoughts," she said, "from a noble and wise
man. I shall only hope that you will find some opportunity to make the
best possible of your life. We have such a small farm, and the land
hereabout is all so high in price that to enlarge the farm seems almost
hopeless. In part because of this difficulty it had seemed to me that
greater opportunities might be open for you in other lines. Don't you
feel that you will be greatly handicapped in the beginning?"
"Perhaps," said Percy, "in some ways; but not in other ways. We hear
on every hand that this is an age of specialists, that the most successful
man cannot take time to prepare himself well for many different lines
of work; that he must make the best possible preparation in some one
line for which he may have special talent or special interest; and then
endeavor to go farther in that line than any one has gone before. When I
first wrote to the State University I asked how long a time would likely
be required for me to complete all the subjects that are taught there, and
the registrar replied that, if I could carry heavy work every year, I
might hope to take all the courses now offered in about seventy years.
In considering this point of preparation for future work, it has seemed
to me that if I leave the farm life and devote myself to law or to
engineering, I must in large measure sacrifice about ten years of
valuable experience in practical agriculture. I have learned enough
about farming so that I can manage almost as well as the neighbors;
and without this knowledge, gathered, as you say, in the school of
experience, I can see that serious mistakes would often be made.
"You know that Doctor Miller bought the Bronson farm two years ago.
Well, he has been giving some directions himself concerning its
management. He has had no experience in farming, and last year, after
he had the new barn built, he directed his men to put the sheaf oats in
the barn so they would be safe from the weather. He did not understand
that oats must stand in the shock for two or three weeks to become
thoroughly "cured" before they can safely be even stacked out of doors;

and the result was that his entire oat crop rotted in the barn.
"People who have lived always in the city sometimes express the most
amusing opinions of farm conditions so well understood even by a
ten-year-old country boy. I recently overheard two traveling men
remarking about the differences which they could plainly observe
between the corn crops in different fields as they rode past in the train.
"'Some fields have twice as good corn as other adjoining fields,' one
remarked. 'How do you account for the difference,' asked the other. 'oh,
I suppose the one farmer was too stingy of his seed,' was the reply.
"I am convinced that there are hundreds or perhaps thousands of
valuable facts that have been acquired through experience and
observation by the average farm boy of eighteen or twenty years that
would be of little or no value to him in most other occupations; and in
this respect I should be handicapped if I leave the farm life and begin
wholly at the bottom in some other profession. Perhaps agriculture is
not a profession, but I think it should be if the highest success is to be
attained."
"I surely hope you will be successful, Percy, and your reasoning sounds
all right; but other occupations seem to lead to greater wealth than
farming."
"I very much doubt," replied Percy, "if there is any other occupation
that is so uniformly successful as farming, in the truest sense. It
provides constant employment, a good living, and a comfortable home
for nearly all who engage in it; and as a rule they have made no such
preparation as is required for most other lines of work.
"But there is still another side to the farm life, Mother dear, or to any
life for that matter. Your own life has taught me that to work for the
love of others is a motive which directs the noblest lives. If agricultural
missionaries are needed in India, they are also needed in parts of our
own country where farm lands that were once productive are now
greatly depleted and in some cases even abandoned for farming; and. if
the older lands of the corn belt are already showing a decrease in
productive power, we need the missionary even here. If I can