The Street makes it easier to exchange a dozen eggs for
three spools of silk, or a pound of butter for a hat pin, but that's
all; it never created half the intrinsic value of twelve eggs or sixteen
ounces of butter. It's only the farmer who is a wealth producer, and
it's high time that he should be recognized as such. He's the husbandman
of all life; without him the world would be depopulated in three years.
You don't half appreciate the profession which your Dad has taken up in
his old age."
"That sounds all right, but I don't think the farmer would recognize
himself from that description. He doesn't live up to his possibilities,
does he?"
"Mighty few people do. A farmer may be what he chooses to be. He's under
no greater limitations than a business or a professional man. If he be
content to use his muscle blindly, he will probably fall under his own
harrow. So, too, would the merchant or the lawyer who failed to use his
intelligence in his business. The farmer who cultivates his mind as well
as his land, uses his pencil as often as his plough, and mixes brains
with brawn, will not fall under his own harrow or any other man's.
Pages:
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438